After the police set the bait, the killer still showed no signs of action for a long time. Just as Jiang Xiaoyu began to suspect his own hypothesis might be wrong, a video surfaced online showing the first victim abusing animals.
“Have we traced the source?” Jin Ge pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on.
“The IP is overseas, and there’s a high chance it was uploaded by the group admin Bu Rongxue. Public opinion on this has blown up huge— the whole internet is denouncing this cat abuser.”
“Contact all the platforms and get them to take the video down immediately.”
But as soon as one was taken down, a new one would pop up. From the first victim’s cat abuse video to the second, the third, and eventually all of them. The perpetrator’s networking skills were so advanced that even Pine City’s top cyber security team was at a loss.
Most critically, these cat and dog abuse videos sparked intense public outrage. People’s emotions ran so high that the incident shot to the top of the hot search lists on every platform. And in this climate, it was revealed that the people who abused cats and dogs had been cruelly killed in the exact same manner.
“Serves them right!”
“Die well! These scum got what they deserved!”
“Disgusting! And he’s a meat seller—who knows if the meat he sold was hacked off live from the animals he tortured!”
Comments like these flooded the internet, with karma theories misleading the masses and causing severe social impact.
Rational media and netizens demanded explanations from the police, and higher-ups ordered them to speed up the investigation. Suddenly, the Special Task Force was under immense pressure.
Even as just an ordinary grunt in the Special Task Force, Jiang Xiaoyu had pulled several all-nighters sorting through the minutiae of the cases.
Ye Qingxu felt sorry for the kid but comforted himself that he couldn’t interfere with the kid’s work. Wan Keyao, on the other hand, after being turned away at the door for days without seeing his son, grew anxious with mouth sores. He seized an opportunity to buy a bunch of snacks and hurried to the Case Handling Office.
Jiang Xiaoyu was examining crime scene photos when he heard Jin Ge pick up the phone and say, “Xiaoyu, the gate guard says your dad brought midnight snacks. Go meet him at the door.”
Jiang Xiaoyu looked up, a bit dazed—he hadn’t heard Ye Qingxu mention coming. He ran to the door and saw a tall, imposing figure. Who else could it be but Wan Keyao?
The man struck the perfect balance with the child—affectionate yet maintaining proper boundaries. He smiled and asked, “How much longer until you’re off?”
With the man’s arm around his shoulder, Jiang Xiaoyu felt a little uncomfortable and said, “A bit longer.” It was past ten now; usually, the grunts like them were shooed back to rest before midnight, while the leaders battled on longer.
Wan Keyao led the kid back to the Case Handling Office and waved for his household servant A-Da behind him to distribute food to everyone.
Spotting Jin Ge, he smiled and offered a cigarette: “Hello, Officer Jin. I’ve long heard of your reputation.” This was his son’s lifesaver and current boss. Even someone as proud and haughty as Wan Keyao had to lower his head: “You’ve been working hard.”
This was Wan Qianli’s son—Jin Ge didn’t dare act superior. He shook hands politely and smiled, “Serving the people.”
As the two elders ate and chatted, Lu Wanhui sidled up to Jiang Xiaoyu with his midnight snacks and asked, “Hey, got a question for you.”
Jiang Xiaoyu had no idea when their relationship had thawed so much. Feeling awkward, he nibbled a small cookie and asked, “What?”
“That day, I saw that thing on your neck.”
“What thing?” Jiang Xiaoyu was puzzled.
“You know, that!” Lu Wanhui winked suggestively. “A hickey! Are you dating someone?” As he asked, his heart tensed up. He knew it couldn’t be Jin Ge, but he still clutched his chest.
Jiang Xiaoyu was straightforward and generous about admitting relationships: “Oh, yeah.”
“Who is it?”
Jiang Xiaoyu found his urgency strange but didn’t hide it: “You don’t know him. Uh, actually… you’ve heard his name.” After all, he’d tried to snatch that case from him back then.
Hearing it wasn’t someone he knew, Lu Wanhui immediately relaxed. He shoveled a spoonful of rice into his mouth and mumbled, “Who?”
“Ye Lian.”
Lu Wanhui nearly spat out his rice, covering his mouth and coughing for ages. His movements were so big that Jin Ge and Wan Keyao both looked over.
He took a sip of water, looking at Jiang Xiaoyu with admiration in his eyes: “You’ve got guts—that’s the Ye family.” He lowered his voice sneakily: “He’s quite a bit older than you, right? Did you chase him, or…?”
Jiang Xiaoyu hadn’t shared his relationship with outsiders before. Being asked made him feel unexpectedly sweet; his ear tips reddened as he fiddled with his cookies: “I chased him.” His Wife Cat had confessed first, but this wasn’t wrong!
“You’ve got guts.” Lu Wanhui immediately wanted tips: “Guys like that, older ones—what do they like?” He asked while stealing glances at Jin Ge, his heart pounding.
The Black Cat Cub found him odd but didn’t think much of it. Instead, he was stumped: “Dunno… He said I was cute…”
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lu Wanhui didn’t find Jiang Xiaoyu’s handsome features cute at all. He compared himself to his mental image of “cute,” deciding his burly build didn’t fit, and his rice suddenly tasted bitter.
Jiang Xiaoyu had always thought Lu Wanhui’s brain was addled, especially his possessive, unreasonable kid-like attitude toward Jin Ge. He didn’t bother tangling with him and turned to eat his cookies alone.
With the kid’s father bringing snacks and warmth, and it getting late, Jin Ge let Jiang Xiaoyu clock out.
As Jiang Xiaoyu packed up, Wan Keyao pulled him into his car.
“Leave your car at the unit today. Big Dad will pick you up for work tomorrow morning, or have your dad drop you off.”
Calling himself Big Dad so naturally left Jiang Xiaoyu with no room to argue. Once in the car, he was coaxed back into cat form.
Wan Keyao wanted to hold the little cat but didn’t dare push it. He only regretted that the late-night roads weren’t congested enough and the trip too short, cutting their time together.
At the house entrance, Ye Qingxu, who’d received the message, was waiting at the door. He scooped Jiang Xiaoyu from the back seat, ignoring the clingy tag-along behind them. He kissed the little cat’s head: “Too late to go to the Ye Residence tonight. We’ll crash at the foot of the hill with Dad. I asked Uncle Chen to watch your grandpa.”
The clingy tag-along wanted to shamelessly follow the father-son duo, but frowned at the words: “Staying at the Ye Residence—what would that look like?” He still didn’t know his kid had been snatched by that sly little Ye fox. He felt Ye Qingxu was too friendly toward Ye Lianzhi and got a bit jealous: “That Ye Lianzhi has a black heart, rotten to the core. Stay away from him.”
But no sooner had he said it than both the man-cat father-son pair glared at him.
The curly-furred kitten even let out a big meow in retort: “He’s not bad!”
Seeing the father-son duo both siding with that vixen, Wan Keyao felt like his home had been stolen and he was being squeezed out. His heart shattered into pieces, and he was so furious he wanted to grab a gun and storm the Ye Residence to finish the guy off.
Ye Qingxu said, “Ignore him. He’s got a dirty mind, so everyone looks dirty to him.”
Wan Keyao felt so wronged he wanted to burrow into a hole. His tall frame shrank into a pitiful mushroom in the shadows, pathetically watching the gate close in his face.
Due to the overnight overtime, the Major Crimes Unit members trickled in late the next day. Jiang Xiaoyu was pondering case leads alone when he received a message.
Huang Li: Officer Jiang, has the Milk Cow Cat passed? I went to see it this morning, but the hospital said it’s gone.
Jiang Xiaoyu lowered his gaze at the message, keeping a mental note: Yes, a couple days ago. It was brutally killed, likely by an accomplice of whoever hurt it before. I was worried you’d be upset and didn’t know how to tell you.
Huang Li sent a crying emoji: How could this happen… I wanted to discuss adopting it with you once it was discharged…
Jiang Xiaoyu: My condolences.
After locking his phone, Jiang Xiaoyu pictured Huang Li in his mind. Maybe he was overthinking it, but after the first two cases, he’d started paying attention to everyone connected to the cases.
The first time he met Huang Li was at the market, near where the second victim’s Meat Shop Owner had been.
The second time was under the phoenix tree, where she was looking at Mighty, the victim from the fourth case.
Could it really be such a coincidence? Jiang Xiaoyu pictured her legs—severely atrophied muscles, not something like Luo Xi’s deliberate disguise could mimic.
He logged into the Regular Archive System, entered Huang Li’s name, filtered the results, and carefully reviewed the file.
Her legs had been disabled in a car accident in her youth, with medical records from various hospitals over the next decade or so. It couldn’t be faked.
Nothing unusual in the regular system. Jiang Xiaoyu then accessed the Shapeshifter Archive System and searched Huang Li—no records.
All signs pointed to her being a vulnerable person with a physical disability. Yet Jiang Xiaoyu still felt something off and trusted his gut, reporting his findings to Jin Ge.
“I’ll have Criminal Investigation send someone to tail her,” Jin Ge said. He also thought it too coincidental—two murders sharing the same indirect witness. The odds were lottery-level.
Jiang Xiaoyu finished reporting and was about to head out when Jin Ge stopped him. “Jia Muqin’s case is going to trial soon. Are you going?”
Jiang Xiaoyu then remembered there was such a person. He was stunned for a moment, and it took him a good while before he said, “I’m not going.”
Since Ye Lian had told him to leave the matter to the adults, and Dad also seemed intent on seeking justice through legal procedures, he’d just let the state’s judgment handle it.
That was what he thought, but he hadn’t expected the Li family to be so stupid. They actually dared to bring their whole family to make a scene right at the Police Station entrance, rushing headlong to their deaths—beyond any hope of salvation.
