Animal Detective

Chapter 167: Love

Shajin Farm was still in operation, but it had a new name now: Sennika Pet Paradise.

On the drive to the farm, Ding Yuwei stared out the window, a little lost in thought.

"What are you thinking about?" Shen Xin noticed while they were stopped at a red light and asked curiously.

’We’re partners. We can share our thoughts.’

Ding Yuwei snapped back to reality. After a moment of contemplation, she asked, "Shen Xin, do you also think Yang Huixia is the murderer?"

A year had passed, and when Zhou Zhongyi looked back on the case, he still thought Yang Huixia was the murderer.

"You don’t think she is?"

Shen Xin countered.

After reading through the case file, Shen Xin felt there was no question about it—it was Yang Huixia.

She was just too suspicious.

The couple had conflicts, and a life insurance policy was purchased in advance.

Although they found the insurance agent who sold the policy to Zhu Guishen and confirmed he had bought it himself, that didn’t change the fact that Yang Huixia was the beneficiary.

Their farm was doing poorly, they were deep in a debt crisis, and they had a motive to get their hands on some money.

During the potential time of the incident, Yang Huixia’s movements were also unaccounted for.

And the security cameras happened to be turned off.

’Could it all be a coincidence?’

The only thing missing was the body.

After suspecting Yang Huixia, Zhou Zhongyi immediately had forensic evidence collected from the crocodile pond.

They found nothing.

About ten days had passed, and with the high temperatures during that period, in the words of the forensics team, any DNA left behind would have long since been degraded by the sun.

The same went for any bloodstains.

They found nothing in the crocodiles’ feces either.

Zhou Zhongyi consulted with zoo experts, considering whether to anesthetize the two crocodiles and cut them open for an examination.

In the end, they gave up on the idea. According to the animal experts, after so many days, anything would have been completely digested.

Besides, Shen Xin thought, the very fact that there’s no body is what makes it more likely that Yang Huixia did it.

’This was a living, breathing person!’

’In modern society, it’s very difficult for a person to just vanish completely, especially for two whole years.’

’Let’s assume Yang Huixia wasn’t the killer. Let’s say Zhu Guishen was dodging his debts, or he had a sudden change of heart and decided he wanted to see the world, so he just up and left.’

’But for two years? Without leaving a single trace? He’d abandon his son? Abandon his elderly parents?’

’So, Zhu Guishen is most likely dead.’

’And under these circumstances, with a body that can’t be found no matter what, the only explanation is that he was killed by Yang Huixia and fed to the crocodiles.’

Ding Yuwei’s two long, elegant eyebrows knitted together. "But Yang Huixia loved Zhu Guishen," she said.

"Love?"

Shen Xin was taken aback for a moment.

Zhou Zhongyi had interrogated Yang Huixia multiple times.

It’s just that times had changed, so they didn’t use the Memory Recovery Technique.

That’s why Yang Huixia was able to keep stonewalling, and the thing she said most often was that she loved Zhu Guishen and would never, ever kill him.

"Ding Yuwei, what century are we in? You still believe in love?" Shen Xin countered.

"Think about it. They’re both almost forty. They got married at twenty-four. That’s over a decade. The seven-year itch is long gone."

"The two of them worked their butts off to build a business, only to lose all the money they made. Their kid is older now, so there’s this and that to worry about. And then there are his parents, who never got along with Yang Huixia."

"Honestly, at their age, what love is there left? Kissing each other would probably give them nightmares for two days."

"Not to mention Zhu Guishen was a domestic abuser. Go look through the station’s case files on spousal homicides. They almost all happen in this age group."

"Oh, right!"

Shen Xin recalled the Zhang Qin case. "Let me tell you about another case, an even crazier one," he said. "You wouldn’t believe it. They were a truly toxic couple, just torturing each other."

With that, he briefly recounted the Zhang Qin case.

"By the end, both of them were hoping the other would get the death penalty. Tell me that’s not brutal."

Ding Yuwei’s brow furrowed again. She retorted, "Shen Xin, that’s an extreme, isolated case. You can’t stop believing in love just because of that."

She turned her head and stared intently at Shen Xin.

Shen Xin pursed his lips. He wanted to laugh, but under Ding Yuwei’s fiery gaze, he chose to keep his mouth shut.

Ding Yuwei averted her gaze. "I read the transcripts carefully," she said. "From Yang Huixia’s descriptions, I could feel that she genuinely loved Zhu Guishen."

Shen Xin didn’t argue with her. In his mind, the killer was Yang Huixia, period.

’A living person, gone for two years without a trace. It’s just too abnormal.’

’Now that the investigation is reopened, the key is to find evidence of murder.’

’And to start, I want to confirm one thing: whether Yang Huixia really did use the two crocodiles to dispose of the body.’

’I want to try a reenactment.’

’They say crocodiles, despite being cold-blooded, have a cerebral cortex, a complex brain, engage in sophisticated pack hunting, and even use tools to lure prey.’

’I read online that the smartest crocodiles supposedly have the intelligence of a ten-year-old child.’

’Of course, I wouldn’t fully trust something from one of those clickbait articles.’

’But even if you cut that in half, you’re still looking at the intelligence of a four- or five-year-old. That would be enough to do a reenactment, just like with Broo back then.’

Soon, the two arrived at their destination.

Dingshan was quite large.

It ran from east to west and had a double-humped shape. The highest point was where Dingshan Temple was located, and to the east was a shorter peak that the locals called Lotus Peak.

Shajin Farm was situated at the northern foot of Lotus Peak on the eastern side.

It was backed by the mountain and surrounded by walls, with the main gate on the west side. The property was a decent size, a little over an acre.

The sign above the gate had been changed, replaced by two cartoonish windmills bearing the name "Sennika."

It was a Thursday, and since they arrived in the afternoon, the crowd was sparse.

The entrance fee wasn’t cheap, though—58 yuan per ticket.

But since they were there to investigate a case, Shen Xin and his partner flashed their badges, and a young man in a thin, gray cotton jacket quickly ran over.

He was the park’s manager, named Yang Daoqiang.

He nervously asked them their purpose for being there.

"Don’t be nervous. We’re just here to find someone," Shen Xin said. "Yang Huixia. Is she at work today?"

The investigation into the case had been suspended in March 2016.

Back when the incident occurred, their farm had already been on the verge of closing down for good.

But after the incident, Yang Huixia suddenly changed her mind. She borrowed another sum of money from relatives, wanting to keep the farm going.

Most importantly, because Zhu Guishen’s whereabouts were unknown, the insurance company refused to pay out on the life insurance policy.

This meant that in the end, Yang Huixia got nothing.

She was raising animals, and the daily expenses for feed and care were immense.

She struggled to keep the farm running for another two months like this until August, when she finally had no other choice and sold it.

She sold the lease and all the animals as a package deal for over six hundred thousand yuan.

The money was just barely enough to pay off all the farm’s debts.

Then, when Yang Huixia was selling the farm, she made one request: she wanted to stay on as an animal keeper and continue working there.

This behavior was quite strange.

Zhou Zhongyi suspected she might be trying to stay at the farm to hide some kind of evidence.

The buyer agreed, because they were taking over a whole bunch of animals, and some of them were very familiar with Yang Huixia, so keeping her on would be useful.

But they didn’t know the recent situation, as the investigation had been suspended long ago.

"Sister Xia? Oh yeah, she came to work today. I just saw her in the Rainforest Zone a little while ago," Yang Daoqiang said, quickly leading Shen Xin toward the Rainforest Zone deeper inside the park.

After buying the original farm, the new owner had expanded it and divided it into zones.

There was a Cute Pet Zone and a Rainforest Zone.

It sounded grand, but a closer look revealed it was a completely slapdash operation.

There wasn’t any real rainforest, just a few parrots—and not even King Kongs, but African Greys.

Then there were alligator snapping turtles?

Meerkats?

And the star attraction was, believe it or not, those two crocodiles.

You could say that not a single one was a proper rainforest animal.

And then there were monkeys.

Amidst the SQUEAKING, a monkey scurried out from somewhere, ran up to Shen Xin, and held out its hand for food.

Chasing after it was a middle-aged woman wearing a thin cotton jacket over a red sweatshirt.

"Sister Xia."

Yang Daoqiang called out hastily.

Shen Xin’s gaze immediately fell upon the middle-aged woman.

’So that’s Yang Huixia?’