Animal Detective

Chapter 165: The Shajin Farm Case

On May 15, 2015, the Dingshan Police Station received a report.

The person who filed the report was named Yang Huixia.

She reported that her husband, Zhu Guishen, was missing and unreachable.

Police officer Ding Candong from the station took the case and conducted the first interview with the reporting person.

Yang Huixia and her husband, Zhu Guishen, ran an animal farm over on Cui Lin Second Road, and the two usually lived on the farm.

On May 11th, the couple had a huge fight. In a fit of anger, Yang Huixia went back to her parents’ home in the neighboring Pingyu City.

Then, on the 15th, Yang Huixia returned to the farm.

The farm wasn’t doing well and was about to shut down. They had already arranged with their four employees to pay out their severance wages on the 15th.

As a result, when Yang Huixia arrived at the farm a little after two in the afternoon, she found the main gate unlocked.

The living area showed signs of being ransacked, the office safe was open, and the thirty thousand in cash prepared for the four employees had vanished into thin air.

She tried calling Zhu Guishen, but his phone was off.

She called her father-in-law and mother-in-law, but they hadn’t seen Zhu Guishen in the past few days either.

She asked a few employees, who said that after they were let go early on the 13th, no one had come back to the farm, nor had they contacted or seen Zhu Guishen.

Sensing something was wrong, Yang Huixia immediately chose to call the police.

Ding Candong, along with his colleague Ren Pengcheng, rushed to the scene with Yang Huixia.

There were indeed signs of a struggle at the scene.

The couple lived on the farm. In the kitchen, they discovered unwashed pots, pans, and dishes in the sink.

It was May, and the temperature was already quite high. The leftover food had started to stink.

It seemed like it had been there for about two days.

Most importantly, they also discovered that the farm’s surveillance system had been turned off.

It wasn’t broken; it was manually shut down.

After they rebooted it, the system showed it had been turned off at 7:11 PM on the 12th.

Regarding the surveillance system, Yang Huixia’s statement was that she had returned to the farm around six in the afternoon on the 12th to pack her things and leave for her parents’ house for good.

The four employees could confirm this, as they had indeed seen Yang Huixia return.

Furthermore, the main gate’s surveillance camera had also captured footage of her.

After returning to the farm, Yang Huixia even helped the employees herd the animals back into their sheds. Once the employees left, Yang Huixia said Zhu Guishen had asked her to come back.

They hadn’t spoken more than a few sentences before they started arguing again.

During the argument, Zhu Guishen lost his temper, smashed some things, and knocked over a kettle, which landed right on a power strip, causing a short circuit that tripped the breaker.

This was likely when the surveillance system’s main unit lost power.

After flipping the breaker back on, they were so preoccupied with arguing that they didn’t bother to restart the system.

This explanation was barely plausible.

Subsequently, Ding Candong tried contacting all of Zhu Guishen’s friends and reviewed surveillance footage from the surrounding area, but found no trace of Zhu Guishen’s whereabouts.

The man had just vanished.

Then, considering the possibility of a robbery and home invasion, they reported the case to the sub-bureau on the 17th.

The sub-bureau’s criminal detective, Zhou Zhongyi, was in charge of the investigation.

But to this day, there has been no conclusion.

Shen Xin’s thoughts returned to the present.

"We’ll see. It depends on what the brass assigns. I’ll think about it after my break."

Whether he would continue to work on cold cases still depended on his superiors’ arrangements.

Ding Yuwei nodded. "You really should get a good couple of days’ rest."

After all, he’d been through a hail of bullets—such a major incident.

If this were a TV show, he’d have to undergo psychological counseling.

He left work early and went home.

The moment he walked in the door carrying Da Mei, Shen Xin shuddered.

His mom, his dad, and his older sister were all there.

Once home, Da Mei voluntarily leaped out of Shen Xin’s arms.

Shen Xin, however, hesitated, wondering if he should make an excuse and bolt.

’This clearly doesn’t look good!’

"What are you standing there for? Get in here." Zeng Wenxi was well-maintained and had an elegant air about her, but she could be fierce when she got angry.

When he was a child, Shen Xin had been more afraid of his mom than his dad.

"Mom, Dad, what are you guys doing here?"

Shen Xin steeled himself and walked in.

Then he shot a glare at Shen Shuang. ’Did you snitch on me?’

’I told you to run interference for me.’

Shen Shuang made a face at Shen Xin and went back to playing on her phone.

Shen Haolin was watching TV. He gave Shen Xin a helpless look before turning his attention back to the screen.

The apartment, however, had been thoroughly cleaned and felt like new.

Zeng Wenxi patted the spot on the sofa next to her.

As soon as Shen Xin sat down, her hand shot out and grabbed his ear. "You’ve really done it this time," she scolded. "If your Aunt Li hadn’t told me, I would have never known such a huge thing happened!"

Shen Xin immediately yelped in pain.

Once Zeng Wenxi let go, he scooted away a little and asked, "Mom, don’t listen to Aunt Li’s nonsense. She’s lying to you."

"Lying to me? I have video proof!"

She took out her phone, found a video, and showed it to Shen Xin.

Shen Xin took one look and was instantly dumbfounded.

’Who filmed this? How could they be so lucky as to catch me in the shot?’

’Judging by the angle, it must have been filmed from the building across from Unit 22.’

It started from when he was protecting Li Jiahui and Chen Guo, and it captured him running into the entrance of the adjacent building to take cover.

The video was a bit shaky.

The key thing was, it had captured him looking like a complete mess.

While he was away on a business trip to Ningshan, the City Bureau had issued a briefing on the case.

The videos online had all been processed and didn’t blow up too much.

However, related videos were still being circulated privately.

After all, so many shots were fired over a considerable period, startling all the residents in the two apartment buildings.

"Mom, it’s all in the past. Look, aren’t I perfectly fine?" Shen Xin put down the phone and quickly hugged Zeng Wenxi, trying to sweet-talk his way out of trouble.

"Fine? What’s fine about it? I’m not fine!"

Zeng Wenxi pushed Shen Xin away, poking him in the forehead as she lectured, "I told you a long time ago that being a police officer is dangerous."

"It was one thing when you were at the local station, but you just had to go and transfer to the Criminal Investigation Division. Look at this, guns were fired! How dangerous is that?"

"You’re the only son in our family. If something happens to you, what will your father and I do? Who will take care of us in our old age?"

Shen Shuang immediately raised her hand from the side.

"Mom, he’s not the only child in the family, you know. Besides, I can take care of you in your old age."

"Get lost!"

Zeng Wenxi glared at Shen Shuang.

Then she turned back to Shen Xin. "Do as I say. Go and resign right now. Quit the force."

"Dad!"

Shen Xin looked at Shen Haolin. ’Don’t just watch TV, say something!’

Shen Haolin cleared his throat and stood up. "Ahem, well, I’m hungry. Let’s go out to eat."

"Yes, let’s eat! I’m starving,"

Shen Xin quickly pulled on Zeng Wenxi’s arm.

Zeng Wenxi wasn’t so easily fooled and asked what he was going to do about resigning.

"Mom, how about this: I’ll talk to my superior about it later, okay?" Shen Xin immediately promised.

’I can only stall for now.’

’If I drag it out long enough, she’ll probably forget about it.’

’Besides, even if I say I want to quit, would my boss even approve it?’

Only then did Zeng Wenxi drop the subject, starting instead to nag Shen Xin about how he lived alone in a place that was like a pigsty.

The family went out.

They found a restaurant. After parking the car and as they were heading in, Shen Haolin hung back a few steps and asked Shen Xin in a low voice if the situation had been like in the movies, with a hail of bullets.

"You bet! You have no idea how ruthless that suspect was. And the bullets, WHIZZING by. But your son is lucky; the bullets all dodged me."

It was a shame someone had filmed it, otherwise Shen Xin could have bragged about emerging with nothing more than a slightly dirty corner of his shirt.

"Oh, get out of here."

Shen Haolin snorted with a laugh, then clapped Shen Xin on the shoulder, his face full of pride. "Son, you did a great job. I saw the news. It said you caught a drug dealer. That must have saved countless families."

"So you did the right thing. You’re a police officer; you’re supposed to catch bad guys."

He knew Shen Xin’s dream was to be a police officer, so he had always been very supportive and never forced Shen Xin to come back and inherit his company.

"Of course."

His tone suddenly shifted again, and he said in a hushed voice, "But next time, if things look bad, you should still take cover. Safety first."

"Don’t worry."

Shen Xin made an "OK" gesture.

Having dealt with his parents, Shen Xin breathed a sigh of relief.

The next day, he slept in again and almost missed his meal with Li Jiahui.

After a day of rest, he felt recovered. When he got to work, Sun Zhao called him into his office first thing in the morning.

The message was simple: he wanted Shen Xin to take charge of the cold cases again.

It just went to show, as the saying goes: whatever you’re good at is what your boss will definitely make you do.