Animal Detective

Chapter 220: An Interesting Couple

The incident caused quite a stir, and soon, everyone had heard about it.

Even Shen Shuang shared the news on her social media feed, adding the comment, "Guess you really can’t believe in love. I’m just going to live off my parents forever."

And their mom even liked the post.

The city bureau couldn’t possibly be unaware of such a high-profile case.

In the morning, the order had been to strictly investigate the internal leak. By evening, after the latest updates, their tune had changed.

Bizarre cases were a dime a dozen, but even the city bureau had probably never seen one quite like this.

They had originally planned to issue a formal announcement to debunk the rumors.

But then Sun Zhao came up with an idea.

He suggested they take advantage of Bai Jifei’s "genius idea" and let the news ferment a while longer to see if it might compel Jiang Qi to contact the police herself.

They had already wasted five days. Starting the search from scratch would be extremely difficult.

Bai Jifei’s method was unacceptable, but what was done was done, and they could still use it to their advantage.

Most importantly, what if Jiang Qi was still alive?

’After seeing the news reports, wouldn’t her conscience be stirred? Wouldn’t she be conflicted?’

If they debunked the rumors now, announcing that it was all a trick by Bai Jifei and that no murder had occurred, then Jiang Qi would see that he was fine and the police had everything sorted out. She would feel relieved and have no reason to reveal herself.

After some consideration, Lv Youwei agreed that this was a possibility.

However, with public sentiment online running so high, they couldn’t just ignore it.

So, they used the precinct’s short-video account to post a notice.

It stated that the case was still under investigation and that a formal announcement would be made once the facts were clear. The public was urged not to believe any online rumors and to rely solely on official police announcements.

This, they hoped, might buy them some time.

Meanwhile, Shen Xin was facing another all-nighter.

Shuiyue Mountain.

Night had fallen.

With the new developments, they needed to search the scene again.

It wasn’t that their previous search had been careless; the direction of the investigation had simply changed, and with it, their points of focus.

Shen Xin sat on the sofa, facing a pack of dogs.

Thirty-one of them in total, including the puppies.

He couldn’t just ignore them.

They had contacted Bai Jifei’s parents, who said they would handle it but were too preoccupied for the time being.

Concerned, Shen Xin had asked the colleague guarding the scene to help look after them.

Food and water weren’t an issue; there was plenty in the villa.

The main problem was walking them.

Who had time for that?

Holding some freeze-dried meat jerky, Shen Xin casually tossed pieces to the pack of dogs.

He did it as a precaution, in case his special talent was needed again. It was a bit of advance preparation.

Shen Xin turned his attention to Jiang Qi’s suicide note.

It was on a sheet of A4 paper—computer-printed, of course, not handwritten.

Just one page.

The first section matched what Bai Jifei had described: she found life too painful, didn’t want to be a burden to him, and intended to leave for good to find a secluded place to end it all.

But then there was a second part.

Bai Jifei had said Jiang Qi was a meticulous planner, leaving nothing to chance.

Shen Xin believed him.

Before she quit, she had been a powerhouse with an incredible work ethic. Having worked at a bank, she was undoubtedly thorough.

The suicide note proved it.

Since the note was typed, she had anticipated that the police might suspect Bai Jifei of her murder. So, she had specifically added a statement to clear his name.

It said that her actions were entirely of her own volition, that Bai Jifei knew nothing about it, and that he had not coerced her in any way.

She had even stamped it with her thumbprint.

’Still, it feels a little naive,’ Shen Xin thought.

When someone dies, there has to be an accounting.

It wasn’t as simple as Jiang Qi leaving a note saying Bai Jifei was innocent.

Forget a typed suicide note—even if she’d left a video explaining everything, they would still have to conduct a full investigation.

At the very least, they had to rule out the possibility of coercion from Bai Jifei.

But considering her physical limitations, she probably couldn’t make it foolproof.

Just then, Ding Yuwei came downstairs. Looking exhausted, she sat beside Shen Xin and took some of the freeze-dried jerky to feed the dogs.

Her expression said it all: she hadn’t found anything.

By cleaning the scene so meticulously, Bai Jifei had also wiped away any trace of the person who helped Jiang Qi escape.

"Alright, let’s head back and review the surveillance footage," Shen Xin said, getting up.

Right now, that was their most effective option.

They would have to check the cameras on the complex’s perimeter and examine every single vehicle that passed by on the sixth.

However, upon returning to the precinct with the tech team, he learned something unexpected. All 117 vehicles that entered or exited the complex on the sixth had already been traced.

Incredibly, they hadn’t found anything unusual.

Most of the vehicles belonged to homeowners, tenants, or their guests, along with cars owned by property management staff and a few for renovations or deliveries.

The delivery vehicles were investigated closely, but the team had contacted every driver and confirmed nothing was amiss.

"The husband’s something else, but the wife is just as incredible. She can’t even move, so how did she arrange all this? Did she just sprout a pair of wings and fly out of there?" Zhao Tianxing muttered, slurping from a cup of hot and sour instant noodles.

Across from him, Qian Zhihai, whose bloodshot eyes were fixed on a computer screen, stretched and said, "It sounds impossible, but there were actually plenty of loopholes."

"Those security guards from property management claimed they logged everyone coming and going, but who knows if they really did," Qian Zhihai continued.

"Why else would Jiang Qi have hired a hacker to delete the footage and the access logs?"

"Besides, I’ve seen the registration book. It’s just a name, and many entries only have an arrival time with no departure time. It’s obvious they weren’t taking it seriously. The whole system is full of holes."

Shen Xin leaned over, rummaging through a container of miscellaneous items on Ding Yuwei’s desk until he found some eye drops.

He squeezed a few into his eyes, blinked, and said, "Old Qian is right. There are plenty of loopholes."

’It was just like with Tang Hualong,’ he thought. ’First, he swore to me that the complex’s security was ironclad, then a moment later he was telling me all the footage was gone.’

’Wherever you have people, you have vulnerabilities. It’s unavoidable.’

"That’s why I think we shouldn’t just stare at the footage from the sixth," Shen Xin added. "We need to look at the days before and after, too."

"Jiang Qi supposedly disappeared on the morning of the sixth, but if the crime scene itself was a fabrication, who’s to say when she really left?"

Shen Xin tried to put himself in Jiang Qi’s shoes.

Zhao Tianxing was right.

’This husband and wife are both smart,’ Shen Xin mused. ’I have to treat them as such. Smart people think three steps ahead.’

’Jiang Qi may be immobile, but her mind is perfectly fine. She had plenty of time to slowly plan her disappearance. The very fact that she thought to hire a hacker to delete the footage proves how meticulous she is. She must have considered every angle, including the possibility that Bai Jifei would call the police.’

’The police would definitely come and investigate the events of the sixth. Yes, she had a hacker delete the footage, but there are still security guards. People remember. However, the police would focus their questions on that specific day and time. That’s where doing the unexpected would give her an advantage. She had so many options.’

’For example, what if she managed to hide in the complex for a day and left on the seventh? That alone would be enough to evade the initial investigation.’

Diagonally across from him, Chen Chao, who had been dozing with his eyes shut, raised a hand and pointed in Shen Xin’s direction. Without opening his eyes, he said, "Shen Xin’s right. Every action leaves a trace. A living, breathing person can’t just vanish into thin air."

"There are cameras outside the complex. If we check every vehicle that entered and exited, we’re bound to find something."

"The fact that we haven’t found it yet just means our search isn’t over."

’Having cameras makes this so much easier,’ Shen Xin thought.

Zhao Tianxing muttered, "Good thing our traffic camera network has a high-level firewall. If the hacker she hired managed to delete that footage too, we’d be completely in the dark."

’Hackers aren’t stupid,’ Shen Xin thought. ’No one’s going to risk a long prison sentence that casually.’

They pulled another all-nighter, working until dawn.

Shen Xin could barely keep his eyes open. He headed to the on-call dormitory, found an empty bed, and crashed.

He was woken up by Ding Yuwei shaking him.

"What time is it?"

Shen Xin squinted at his watch.

Almost two in the afternoon.

"Didn’t you sleep?" Shen Xin asked, rubbing his eyes as he sat up.

"I’m fine, I slept for a couple of hours," Ding Yuwei replied. "Shen Xin, you were right."

"Right about what?"

"About what you said—that Jiang Qi might not have left the complex on the sixth. We found something."

Shen Xin was instantly wide awake.

He reached across to shake Zhao Tianxing awake in the opposite bunk, then headed to the washroom, splashing his face with water as he asked for the details.

Ding Yuwei explained, "You know how we started checking the vehicle logs for the days *after* the sixth?"

The logs from before the sixth had been deleted, but everything after was still intact.

"During the review, Gan Yong discovered a rental company car that left the complex at 2:11 p.m. on the seventh."

"According to the property management registry, the vehicle was registered to the owner of a unit in Building 5. That unit had been leased out before the New Year, and the car was registered with the complex around the same time."

She pulled a tissue from her pocket and handed it to Shen Xin to wipe his face, then continued, "We just contacted the rental company. The car was leased long-term right before the New Year. And guess who the renter is?"

"Who?"

’It couldn’t have been Jiang Qi,’ Shen Xin thought. ’She can’t even move.’

"Wang Xin’ning," Ding Yuwei said.

Shen Xin paused for a moment, then the name clicked.

"Isn’t that Bai Jifei’s friend from his village?"

In their search for the person who helped Jiang Qi disappear, they had been focusing on Jiang Qi’s own social circle.

Who would have thought that the accomplice would come from Bai Jifei’s side?

"So what now?" Shen Xin asked, heading for the door. Behind him, a groggy Zhao Tianxing was starting to sit up.

"We’re getting ready to go see Wang Xin’ning now," Ding Yuwei said. "I came to get you."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go."

Shen Xin rushed out the door.

Zhao Tianxing was still in a daze. He raised a hand, about to ask why Shen Xin had bothered waking him up, but Shen Xin was already gone.

"That psycho."

’Did he wake me up just so I could go back to sleep again?’

Zhao Tianxing muttered to himself, his body slumped, and his head had barely hit the pillow before he was back in dreamland.

They found Wang Xin’ning at her office.

She was the human resources manager for a local Nanjiang software company.

Tall and quite beautiful, she had a head of curly, dark brown hair.

Like Jiang Qi, she was 37 years old.

But she took good care of herself.

When they found her, she was working in her office. The moment she heard Shen Xin and the others introduce themselves as police, she flinched, and all the color drained from her face.

Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei had come with Chen Chao.

Ding Yuwei casually shut the office door behind them.

Chen Chao flashed his badge and cut straight to the chase, asking her where Jiang Qi was.

"W-What Jiang Qi? Wasn’t... wasn’t she killed by Bai Jifei? It’s all over the news." She stood up nervously, stammering.

Her eyes darted about nervously; it was clear she had something to hide.

Chen Chao wasted no time with pleasantries. He laid out the evidence: the rental information for the unit in Shuiyue Mountain’s Building 5, the car rental agreement, and the records of that car entering and exiting the complex.

Most importantly...

They had used traffic cameras to track the car Wang Xin’ning had rented. After leaving the complex, she drove southeast until she stopped on Xinyan South Road, near Pingyu.

A distant traffic camera had recorded a van pulling up. She helped someone out of her car and into the van.

She also retrieved a wheelchair from the trunk.

Though the footage wasn’t crystal clear, there was no doubt the person was Jiang Qi.

As soon as she saw the video on Chen Chao’s phone, Wang Xin’ning’s expression changed completely. "Officers, it was Jiang Qi who begged me to do it!" she said frantically. "But the key thing is, I don’t know where she is now, either! I’ve been trying to contact her, but I can’t get through."

"Oh, right."

She scrambled to pull a letter from her drawer and handed it to them. "Jiang Qi gave this to me when she left. She said that if Old Bai was really determined to find her, I should give this to him."

Chen Chao put on a pair of gloves and opened the letter.

Inside was a sheet of paper densely covered with what appeared to be a random jumble of letters.

Chen Chao frowned.

Shen Xin was completely baffled.

Ding Yuwei frowned as well. "Captain Chen," she said, "is this some kind of riddle?"

’A riddle?’

The suggestion left Shen Xin dumbfounded.

’This couple is really something else,’ he thought. ’The husband racks his brain to fake a murder scene to force his wife out of hiding.’

’And the wife is no pushover, either. She’s already gone, but she leaves a riddle for Bai Jifei.’

’What for? So he can try to decrypt it to find her?’

’That’s completely unnecessary.’

’This is a real police investigation, not a detective novel. In the real world, finding people is simple and direct: surveillance footage plus witness interviews. We can find ninety-nine percent of people that way.’