Jiang Xiaoyu’s deduction about the timing of the killer’s crimes was clearly reasonable. The police officer from the Criminal Investigation Division stationed at the pet hospital for covert surveillance had arrested a criminal suspect attempting to harm the milk cow cat Mighty.
“Be honest, what were you doing at the pet hospital in the middle of the night?” Lu Wanhui slammed the file folder onto the table with a bang.
Jiang Xiaoyu sat beside him. This was the first time the two of them were partnering up for an interrogation.
The suspect was named Wang Hao, and he was on the heavier side. At first, he was intimidated by Lu Wanhui’s presence and clearly shrank back. But soon after, he calmed down, instantly shifting his target to Jiang Xiaoyu—the milder one of the two. He stared into his eyes and said sincerely, “Officer, I went to the pet hospital to see the cats, of course. I had just gone in when you caught me. I have no idea what happened.”
Before Jiang Xiaoyu could speak, Lu Wanhui snorted coldly. “See the cats in the middle of the night? And you were carrying a knife to see the cats?”
“I wasn’t carrying a knife. That’s a surgical knife from the hospital! My shoelace was knotted, so I grabbed a knife to cut it.”
Jiang Xiaoyu had been sitting quietly to the side the whole time, looking like nothing more than a backdrop for Lu Wanhui. Gradually, Wang Hao focused his attention on Lu Wanhui, concentrating fully on dealing with this fierce, towering police officer.
At that moment, Jiang Xiaoyu suddenly cut in and asked Wang Hao, “Didn’t you say you were going to live-stream killing a cat at dawn? Why hasn’t even a single photo shown up after all this time? Are you all talk? If you can’t do it, someone else can!”
Wang Hao was fully engaged in his verbal spar with Lu Wanhui when he heard this out of nowhere. Without thinking, he blurted, “There was a little hiccup. Everyone wait a bit longer—the live stream will start soon.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Wang Hao realized he had let something slip. He clamped his mouth shut, his face turning ghastly pale in an instant.
Jiang Xiaoyu dropped his earlier silence, firing off a barrage of questions without giving Wang Hao any room to breathe.
“Are you the group admin of the Animal Abuse Live Stream Group?”
“Do you have accomplices? Do you profit from selling videos of cat abuse?”
“Do you have information on all the members in the group?”
“Did you get inspiration from abusing and killing animals and apply it to crimes against humans?”
Wang Hao hadn’t expected this overly good-looking, vase-like cop to suddenly gain such a strong presence. The rapid-fire, aggressive questions hit him like a machine gun. Under this pressure, he gradually lost his earlier composure. His face turned ashen, his breathing quickened, and his hands and feet began trembling involuntarily. “N-No… I just abuse, abuse cats. How could I possibly kill people!”
Lu Wanhui opened the file folder and said coldly, “Then please explain why, out of all the cats and dogs in the pet shop, you headed straight for that milk cow cat.”
The case was wrapped up quickly.
People like Wang Hao showed astonishing cruelty and mental fortitude when bullying the weak, but when it came to murder, he completely lost his footing. In order to clear his name, he eagerly confessed everything, afraid of being linked to the homicide cases.
In the small conference room at the Case Handling Office, Jin Ge was discussing the case with Jiang Xiaoyu and a few people from Criminal Investigation.
A short-haired female officer said, “We’ve confiscated Wang Hao’s phone and obtained a new lead on the live stream group.”
Jin Ge asked, “Have you identified the group admin?”
The tech shook their head. “This person’s ID in the group is Bu Rongxue. The entry requirement is to live-stream an animal abuse kill, but from our observations, the admin hasn’t done any animal abuse themselves. They seem to just collect money and provide a live-stream platform and technical protection for the group members. The info we’ve traced shows they’re abroad, with strong anti-surveillance skills. Pushing further might tip them off.”
“What about Xiao Lu’s lead?” Jin Ge asked Lu Wanhui.
It was Lu Wanhui’s first time entering the Case Handling Office’s inner area. He had already been suspicious of the department, so he couldn’t help diverting some attention to it. Snapped back by Jin Ge’s question, he said, “Our investigation found that Wang Hao’s motive this time was that someone in the group said they saw the milk cow cat from the previous live-stream abuse hadn’t died and had been sent to the pet hospital. Several live-streamers in the group have died in succession lately, so no one dared to live-stream animal abuse for a while. Wang Hao had no income source and got malicious ideas. He planned to make a big score by starting with this surviving milk cow cat.”
Jiang Xiaoyu asked, “So the victims in the previous cases were all from this live stream group? Including the meat shop owner?”
Lu Wanhui said, “That’s right. And because of his identity as a meat shop owner, he was very active and blatant in the group. His ID was Butcher, so Wang Hao remembered him well.”
“Have you tracked the person who said they saw the milk cow cat?”
The tech said, “We’re on it.”
“We can check the pet hospital’s recent visitors,” Jiang Xiaoyu said. “Since that person said they saw the milk cow cat at the pet hospital, they must have been there recently and entered the deeper treatment areas.”
Due to its condition, Mighty the milk cow cat had been in the ICU the whole time. Regular customers doing pet grooming couldn’t access that area.
A long-haired female officer chimed in, “Officer Jiang is right. I’ll focus on that.”
Her voice was a bit shrill, and Jiang Xiaoyu felt it sounded familiar. Looking closely, he realized it was Sun Kexin, the one who used to mock him often.
She usually took jabs at Jiang Xiaoyu whenever she saw him and compared him to Lu Wanhui. But now her attitude was pleasant. When she noticed Jiang Xiaoyu looking at her, she even smiled at him.
He didn’t really want to engage with her. Turning to Jin Ge, he asked, “What about the milk cow cat? Still at the hospital?”
Jin Ge rubbed his stubbled chin and said with a frown, “I have an idea.”
Seeing the Cat Cub listening intently, he continued, “I think Officer Jiang’s earlier theory is worth pursuing. If the killer hasn’t acted for so long because the milk cow cat didn’t die and the case cycle wasn’t completed, then we can artificially close that loop.”
Jiang Xiaoyu’s expression tightened. “How? Are we really going to let the milk cow cat die?”
Jin Ge sighed. “I’m a cop, not one of those cat- and dog-abusers. We can fake a death scene. Using the fact that Wang Hao planned to live-stream the crime, we can turn the tables and let his cat abuse ‘activity’ proceed.”
Lu Wanhui nodded in agreement but said, “That might not be easy to pull off. How do you get a cat to cooperate with faking a death scene?”
Jin Ge glanced at Jiang Xiaoyu. “What’s hard about that? Animals are smart too. It just has to lie there—the rest is up to the special effects makeup artist.”
Setting up the fake scene was handed to Jiang Xiaoyu and the special effects artist from Criminal Investigation. They carried their gear in plainclothes, coordinated with the hospital, and got to work.
The milk cow cat Mighty knew nothing about how it had nearly been harmed again in the early hours. Smelling Jiang Xiaoyu’s scent, it opened its round eyes and let out a soft mew.
“Good kitty.” Jiang Xiaoyu carefully picked it up and, while the special effects artist was busy, whispered to it.
“It might have to strike a few poses. The movements might pull at your wounds, and it might hurt a bit.” He used “might” three times, unable to hide his distress.
Mighty wasn’t afraid. It rubbed its head against Jiang Xiaoyu’s chest, its voice weak but clear: “Cat not afraid of pain. Cat help you.” No matter how much it hurt, it wouldn’t be worse than before. It wanted to help this human who had saved it—a miraculous one who could speak cat language.
“Good girl.” Jiang Xiaoyu stroked its body again and placed it into the setup prepared by the special effects artist.
The special effects makeup artist was shocked by how cooperative the cat was. With its eyes bulging, tongue lolling, and foam at the mouth, anyone would think it was a dead cat.
“This, this is too smart, isn’t it?” He kept snapping photos and checking them. Even knowing it was fake—and that he had done it himself—the visceral gore still made breathing hard.
“Is this good?” Jiang Xiaoyu adjusted Mighty’s position to show the faked knife wound on its belly.
“Yes, yes.” The special effects makeup artist nodded hurriedly, sent the photos back to Criminal Investigation after shooting.
Once the scene was cleared, Jiang Xiaoyu meticulously cleaned the fake traces off the milk cow cat. It might have hurt during the process, as its muscles twitched a few times, but it had no thought of resisting Jiang Xiaoyu. It trusted him completely.
The doctor only dared to come in after seeing the police leave one after another. “Should we handle the discharge for this cat now?”
Since the milk cow cat was now “dead” in the live stream group’s eyes, keeping it at the pet hospital where someone might spot it would raise alarms. Jiang Xiaoyu filed a report with the bureau and prepared to take it home.
“Yes. If anyone asks or inquires indirectly about the milk cow cat, please insist it was already harmed by someone.”
“Don’t worry about that. The other officers have already trained me. I’ll notify you immediately if there’s any news.”
—
Mighty was taken home by Jiang Xiaoyu and placed in the workroom where Ye Qingxu was currently staying.
“Dad, why don’t you come live with me up in the mountains?”
The workroom beside the main house only had a workbench and storage cabinets—it wasn’t a place for anyone to live in at all. Right now, it held Ye Qingxu’s old folding bed, making the space look terribly cramped. This sight made Jiang Xiaoyu feel a pang of heartache.
“No need.” Ye Qingxu ruffled the kid’s hair. “Papa likes it here. Besides, if Papa goes up to the mountain, who’ll take care of the little cat and the dog?” Seeing that Jiang Xiaoyu was about to say he’d do it, he refused with a couple of hums. “If you come down, what about Cat Grandpa?”
Jiang Xiaoyu frowned in distress, thinking for a good while before saying, “But this is too hard on you.”
What kind of hardship was this? Ye Qingxu nearly teared up at the kid’s words. No matter how much he did, he always felt like he hadn’t done enough for Jiang Xiaoyu. He needed to do better, even better, to make up for all the suffering the kid had endured all these years.
Love always feels like it’s falling short. He quickly turned away to hide his reddening eyes from Jiang Xiaoyu, busying his hands with tidying the cat bed. “Don’t worry, Mighty is very well-behaved and can’t run around anyway. Papa will give it its injections too—I can take good care of it.”
Jiang Xiaoyu fiddled with Mighty’s cat bed, then tugged at Ye Qingxu’s clothes. “Papa has to take good care of himself too.”
Every moment, Ye Qingxu felt like his heart was soaking alternately in sweet syrup and bitter water. In the end, he couldn’t hold back and turned to hug Jiang Xiaoyu. “Papa will. Oh, right—Papa saw you want to take the grad school entrance exam, huh? Decided on a major yet? What direction do you want to go in? Though you’re in the public security system, and Papa hasn’t dealt with the specifics. Wait a sec, I’ll find someone to ask for you.”
Jiang Xiaoyu was actually pretty lost too, since his goals didn’t have a great matching major with real-world application right now. “I’ll stick with public security studies for the major. Get in first, then figure it out.”
Ye Qingxu knew the kid’s goals and fully supported them. “Good. We’ll study for it first—everything will work out in time.”
Even in foreign countries where anti-animal cruelty laws were already in place, the path to protecting animal rights had taken decades of preparation and development.
Sooner or later, that day would come. As Ginkgo Country grew stronger, people would have the energy and resources to care for other vulnerable lives alongside their own needs. At that time, all their efforts would find a place to be put into practice.
But before then, the curly-furred little cat had plenty of obstacles to overcome. Not just from his studies, but also from how ridiculously good-looking Wife Cat was.
He stared at Teacher Ye Lian’s hand gripping the teaching pointer so intently, then at the thin-framed glasses perched on Teacher Ye’s high nose bridge. He felt his face explode with heat—the knowledge swirled around his ears a few times but couldn’t get into his brain at all!
“Classmate Jiang Xiaoyu, don’t let your mind wander!” Teacher Ye smiled faintly, the little pointer tapping the little cat’s butt.
