Animal Detective-Chapter 88: When One Door Closes, Another Opens
With Tingting’s arrival, Shen Xin noticed the affinity meter above Broo’s head had shot up another two bars, reaching a total of seven.
That was a rapid increase.
It meant he’d found the key to increasing its affinity.
Right now, however, Shen Xin couldn’t worry about the affinity meter. He asked Li Xiaobing to keep an eye on Tingting and led Ding Yuwei outside.
Ding Yuwei knew what Shen Xin wanted to talk about. The moment they stepped outside, she frowned and said, "Shen Xin, I thought about it carefully after I got back yesterday. I feel like our theory that Broo started cussing because it saw Sun Kai doesn’t quite add up."
"Think about it. Sun Kai only visited Liu Laibin’s company a few times, probably just for regular business meetings. So why would Broo suddenly start calling him a dumbass?"
It’s not like Liu Laibin would have cursed out Sun Kai right then and there. He was a major client.
Shen Xin nodded. He’d had the same thought yesterday.
"So, it wasn’t Sun Kai that Broo saw. It was one of Liu Laibin’s employees." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
Shen Xin rubbed his temples as he recalled the personnel files on Liu Laibin’s employees. "The accountant, Fan Hui Zhen, went back to her hometown in Fushan right after the case."
"The janitor, Sun Min, kept working for two more years and didn’t go back to her hometown in Lishui until the end of 2015. It’s possible she visited the zoo and Broo saw her. But I doubt Liu Laibin would’ve cussed her out."
Ding Yuwei nodded in agreement. "Then it’s unlikely to be Liang Ying. She was the receptionist, and she moved to Sui Mountain City for work in 2014."
"The technician, Cao Shaopeng, is from Sihui in Yuxi Province. He didn’t go back to his hometown, but he did move to Songpu City for work in 2014. As a technician, he’s someone Liu Laibin might have yelled at."
Of course, there was also the "Uncle Li" Tingting mentioned—Li Weiqin.
However, Li Weiqin’s records show that he too left Nanjiang quickly after the incident, returning to his hometown in Hachun for work.
But since something triggered Broo to start cussing, there’s another possibility: one of them left Nanjiang and then came back.
Unfortunately, too much time has passed. Otherwise, they could have checked travel records to see if anyone had returned to Nanjiang around July 2015.
But realizing this only led the investigation down a dead end.
’My previous theory was wrong.’
’Broo’s strange behavior was simply because Liu Laibin had a bad temper and frequently cussed out his employees, and the parrot picked it up.’ It wasn’t surprising that Liu Laibin would yell at his staff, given his business was struggling.
’So my plan to listen to Broo’s thoughts and have it identify Sun Kai from the sketch probably won’t work.’
’But it’s still worth a shot.’
’Besides, when one door closes, another opens.’
’Coming here to see Broo led me to an unexpected discovery about Guo Chunping.’
’If I keep a close watch on him now, I should be able to find something.’
’So there’s nothing to regret. At least Tingting got to see Broo again, and she seems really happy.’
Shen Xin pushed the door open and went back inside, where he saw Tingting feeding nuts to Broo.
"Broo!"
Shen Xin called out.
Broo flapped its wings and immediately landed on Shen Xin’s arm.
Tingting cried out in delight, "Mister, Broo likes you!"
Shen Xin chuckled, thinking to himself, ’Well, we are at seven bars of affinity, after all.’
After a moment’s thought, Shen Xin took out his phone and pulled up the composite sketch of Sun Kai.
He had taken a picture of it before he came.
"Broo, have you seen this person before?" Shen Xin asked directly.
Seven bars of affinity was quite high. Just like when he’d asked Da Mei to find the calico cat, he could now engage in some basic communication.
Broo actually seemed to understand. It stared at the phone screen for a few seconds, just letting out a few squawks.
His reaction was ambiguous; it was impossible to tell if he’d never seen the man or simply didn’t recognize him.
’It’ll be more reliable once we reach stage two.’
As he handed Broo back to Tingting, Ding Yuwei couldn’t help but say, "Shen Xin, I know parrots are smart, but this..."
Asking a parrot to identify a suspect... She felt it was a bit too fantastic.
Shen Xin replied, "You never know. Besides, animals really can recognize people. My own cat doesn’t just recognize people, he can find them, too. And remember Wu Jiawang’s case? That dog, Lele, still remembered the killer after seven years and identified him on sight."
Ding Yuwei’s eyes widened, clearly stunned.
After watching Tingting and Broo play for a while longer, the girl reluctantly said her goodbyes.
She even asked Shen Xin if she could take Broo home with her.
Director Hong looked a little nervous.
Shen Xin pointed to the adjacent enclosure. "Tingting, Broo has friends here. He might not be as happy at your house as he is here. If you miss him, you can always come and visit."
King Kong Parrots are illegal for private ownership, so there was no way they could give Broo back to Tingting.
Tingting let out an "Oh" and nodded. "You’re right, Mister. Broo has friends here. Besides, my mom really hates Broo."
Director Hong breathed a sigh of relief and immediately said, "Little one, how about I give you an annual pass? That way, you can come and see Broo whenever you want."
He then explained to Shen Xin that it was zoo policy to provide an annual pass to anyone who donates an animal, allowing them to visit anytime.
Tingting thanked him politely.
Since they were already there, Shen Xin spent the next few hours showing Tingting around the rest of the zoo.
They grabbed KFC for lunch, and after that, he finally took Tingting home.
Shi Yanhua wasn’t home; she had apparently gone to work.
Only Wang Genping was there.
"Take good care of her," Shen Xin said, giving Wang Genping a warning look.
Wang Genping hastily nodded, assuring him he would.
After leaving Shi Yanhua’s apartment, Shen Xin contacted Zhao Tianxing to get an update.
’There probably isn’t any news. He would’ve called if something had happened.’
As expected.
Zhao Tianxing reported that he had already looked into it. Guo Chunping didn’t live in Fengshun Li. He’d questioned the security guard who was on duty at the gate that night, and the guard recalled someone getting out of a taxi around that time. The person had waited by the side of the road for a while before hailing a ride-share car and leaving.
He had also traced the ride-share. While a taxi might be an anonymous cash payment, the ride-share had been booked and paid for through an app. The order details confirmed the passenger was Guo Chunping.
The destination was Yuecheng Home, Guo Chunping’s residential complex.
The surveillance team had nothing new to report; Guo Chunping had gone to work as usual.
While he was at it, Zhao Tianxing had also dug up Guo Chunping’s background information.
He was divorced, with no children on record. A native of Nanqiao in Changxi Province, he came to Nanjiang in early 2011. There was no clear information on where he worked initially. Then, in October 2011, he joined the property management company at Jinhui Mansion as a security guard. He was promoted to security manager in August 2012 and has held that position ever since.
That was all for now. Nothing else in his file seemed out of the ordinary.
Based on this information alone, Guo Chunping seemed perfectly ordinary and had no apparent connection to the Liu Laibin case.
But the fact that he had tailed Shen Xin was definitely a red flag.
Shen Xin asked where Zhao Tianxing was, and upon learning he was on stakeout at Jinhui Mansion, immediately drove over to meet him.
When he got there, he was surprised to see that Chen Chao had come as well.
"Not bad at all," Chen Chao said, slapping him on the back as soon as he saw him. "It’s only been a few days and you’ve already got a lead. You’ve really got a knack for these cold cases, kid."
He figured it wasn’t just Shen Xin’s sharp observation and unconventional thinking; he might also just be plain lucky.
Sometimes, solving a case just comes down to a little bit of luck.
The men got into the car.
It wasn’t 6:00 p.m. yet, so Guo Chunping was still at work.
Shen Xin asked Chen Chao what their next move was.
"What do you think?" Chen Chao tossed the question back with a smile.
Shen Xin thought for a moment. "We bring him in for questioning. He’s definitely got something to hide."
Tailing a police officer was reason enough to bring him in.
Chen Chao patted Shen Xin’s shoulder, satisfied. He clearly agreed with the assessment.
