Animal Detective-Chapter 93: Your Talent Is Wasted as a Police Officer

Chapter 93: Chapter 93: Your Talent Is Wasted as a Police Officer

"You’re not going?"

In his office, Chen Chao, who was in the middle of tidying up files, stopped abruptly. He turned his head and asked, puzzled.

He had planned to take Shen Xin with him on this trip to Nanqiao.

’It’s for his training and development, after all.’

’I went to all the trouble to recruit him; I can’t just let him rot in the records room.’

At Captain Chen’s tone, Shen Xin’s confidence evaporated. He asked cautiously, "Captain Chen, you’re not angry, are you?"

Chen Chao gestured for Shen Xin to sit down. "Reason?"

’Might as well face the music.’ Shen Xin steeled himself and explained the situation with Broo.

Chen Chao, who had resumed tidying up, stopped dead in his tracks again.

"A parrot?"

He blinked hard, then said, "Why didn’t you say so earlier, kid?"

Shen Xin said, "Well, I haven’t found anything yet. I was thinking I’d wait until I had a breakthrough before telling you, to save us from getting our hopes up for nothing."

’I even had Broo look at photos, but it was useless.’

"Haven’t found anything?"

Chen Chao scoffed. "If you hadn’t gone to the zoo, would you have accidentally discovered Guo Chunping tailing you? I was wondering why you were so free lately, with enough spare time to go to the zoo after work. Turns out it was all to investigate Liu Laibin’s parrot."

"Recreating the scene and having the parrot identify someone... that’s pretty interesting."

Chen Chao sat down. The more he thought about it, the more incredible it seemed. It felt a bit like when they were investigating the Wu Jiawang case and trying to find Lele.

"Fine, I approve. I get it now. You’ve got a way with animals, kid. Next time we have a case involving an animal, it’s going straight to you."

With a wave of his hand, Chen Chao agreed. He then told Shen Xin to report back immediately if anything came up.

Having gotten Captain Chen’s approval, Shen Xin no longer had any worries holding him back.

Without even waiting for dinner, he rushed to the zoo by himself.

’Time to play supervisor!’

He was going to oversee the construction of Broo’s new nest.

The workers were fast. They had brought in a thick tree trunk the previous night, setting it upright in a corner to serve as the main structure before nailing some branches to it.

’They couldn’t very well transplant a whole, massive tree in here.’

Now, a different crew was here to handle the landscaping for the exhibit area.

"Is this nest going to work?" Shen Xin asked, eyeing the treehouse-like nest at the top of the trunk.

Li Xiaobing was also on-site. He glanced over and said, "Looks perfectly fine to me."

It was a small wooden house with a platform built onto it. Not only could it serve as a landing pad, but the parrots could also walk out onto it for a stroll.

’And with the tourists standing below, watching the little family... it would be perfect.’

Shen Xin shook his head. "I don’t think so. I did some research. Wild King Kong Parrots usually choose natural tree hollows for their nests; they don’t actively build them."

"That’s for wild ones."

Li Xiaobing cut Shen Xin off with a smile. "This is a zoo, after all. Besides, Huahua was raised in captivity. She probably doesn’t even have those instincts anymore."

Shen Xin still shook his head. "How about this? Let’s have Broo choose for himself. We can see if he likes this nest."

Li Xiaobing didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

’He’s a parrot, an animal with a brain no bigger than an almond. Is he really going to care whether he likes his nest or not?’

’He seemed perfectly happy living in that concrete shack in the glass cage.’

"Let’s just try. Since we’re going to do it, we might as well do it right," Shen Xin urged.

’Whether Broo likes it or not is very important to me.’

"Alright, fine."

Li Xiaobing nodded with a wry smile. ’He felt like Shen Xin was talking to him like a boss.’

Shen Xin personally went to bring Broo over.

As he was taking him out of the cage, he even told Broo that he was taking him to see his new home.

Li Xiaobing didn’t know what to say. ’He was acting as if the parrot understood everything.’

When Shen Xin returned with Broo, he was surprised to find that Ding Yuwei was there.

"What are you doing here?"

"We’re partners, aren’t we?"

Ding Yuwei smiled and asked Shen Xin what he was doing.

Shen Xin hesitated for a moment, then said, "I brought Broo over to see if he likes his new nest."

Ding Yuwei said, "Oh," and simply watched with great interest.

Now it was Shen Xin’s turn to be surprised. He asked, "You don’t think this is weird?"

’Li Xiaobing and the others don’t know what I’m trying to do, but Ding Yuwei should.’

’Investigating a murder case by focusing all this effort on a parrot... anyone would think there was something wrong with that, right?’

"Why would I think that?" Ding Yuwei retorted, then lowered her voice. "You managed to find Wu Jiawang with Lele’s help, so I believe you can crack this case with Broo, too."

After saying that, she hesitated again before adding, "It’s just... next time you’re planning something, could you let me know?"

’We agreed to be partners, to trust each other.’

Shen Xin looked at Ding Yuwei for a few seconds before looking away with a wry smile. "Thanks. But to be honest, I don’t have much confidence myself."

As he spoke, he opened the birdcage and called out to Broo.

"Come on, Broo. Take a look at your and Huahua’s new nest. Do you like it?" Shen Xin asked, pointing to the treehouse above.

’He’d given the little guy another boost yesterday, and its affinity was now at 8 bars. Understanding him was no problem at all.’

Broo flapped his wings and landed on the treehouse platform.

He looked left, then right, then strutted into the wooden house to inspect it before flying back a moment later.

"No good, no good!"

Broo squawked, his voice raspy.

Li Xiaobing looked like he’d seen a ghost. He muttered, "Officer Shen, this bird has become a spirit."

Shen Xin just smiled and said nothing.

’Actually, Shen Xin had a feeling that his ability might also be affecting the target animals, increasing their intelligence and giving them this ’spirit-like’ quality.’

’Just like Da Mei, who had recently taken a liking to watching *Tom and Jerry* and actually seemed to understand it.’

’Aside from not being able to talk, you could say there was no difference from her becoming a spirit.’

"Then what kind do you like?" Shen Xin asked, looking down at Broo.

Broo tilted his head and SQUAWKED.

Clearly, he couldn’t properly express what he meant.

Shen Xin thought for a moment, then asked Li Xiaobing for a marker and a piece of paper.

Once he had them, Shen Xin drew a circle in the very center of the paper and colored in the area around it.

"What’s that supposed to mean?" Ding Yuwei asked, crouching down.

"A hole. Doesn’t it look like a picture of Broo peeking out from a tree hollow when he was just a chick?"

As he spoke, Shen Xin showed the drawing to Broo and asked him if this kind of nest was good.

Broo understood instantly. He hopped around, squawking that it was good.

Only then did Shen Xin look over at Li Xiaobing. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Li Xiaobing was dumbfounded. He gave up. "Change it. I’ll have them change it right away."

After saying that, he couldn’t help but add, "Officer Shen, your talents are truly wasted as a police officer."

With Shen Xin’s ability to communicate with animals, he could easily be a zoologist.

Ding Yuwei just gave him a direct thumbs-up.

...

Chen Chao took two men on a trip to Nanqiao. He was gone for five days before finally returning, weary from the journey.

In the main office, Sun Zhao handed him a cigarette and asked if he had found anything on Sun Kai.

"Nope."

Chen Chao shook his head with a bitter smile. "Our colleagues in Nanqiao were very cooperative. They even went to great lengths to find a former colleague of Guo Chunping’s from the Nanqiao Aluminum Industry security department—the two of them were best friends. They grew up in the same housing complex and were extremely close."

"The guy had never seen this Sun Kai. He said he knew almost all of Guo Chunping’s friends, and there was no one like that in his circle."

"While I was at it, I looked into all of Guo Chunping’s social connections I could find, but didn’t discover much. Anyway, he was just a pretty tragic guy."

"As for why he came to Nanjiang, one of his neighbors said he’d gotten a lead on his son here in Nanjiang, so that’s why he came."

Chen Chao caught his breath and recounted everything he had found out.

"Doesn’t that just put us back at square one?" a colleague exclaimed.

The team hadn’t been idle these past few days. They continued investigating Guo Chunping’s death, expanding the scope of their interviews, but they hadn’t found anything.

In other words, Guo Chunping’s death was still being classified as a suicide.

But as for why he committed suicide, nobody knew.

And now, Chen Chao’s trip to Nanqiao had essentially confirmed that there was no connection between Guo Chunping and Sun Kai.

Chen Chao said, "Maybe we jumped to conclusions. The arm in that photograph might not belong to Sun Kai."

Sun Zhao nodded thoughtfully.

At the time, everyone had jumped to the conclusion that Guo Chunping had committed suicide out of guilt. Coupled with the fact that a third of the photo was torn off, it was natural to assume that Guo Chunping and Sun Kai were old acquaintances.

Because that would explain a lot of things.

But logically speaking, it didn’t hold up.

"This is just bizarre."

Sun Zhao scratched his head. It seemed there was a good reason this case had gone cold.

Just then, Chen Chao glanced around and suddenly asked, "By the way, where’s Xiaoshen? Any news from his end?"

’The lead in Nanqiao is a dead end. Now, their only hope is for Shen Xin to make a discovery.’

Sun Zhao laughed. "Not yet. He’s at the zoo every day. Director Lv was even joking with me yesterday, saying that Xiaoshen’s way of handling a case is truly one of a kind."

Just as he said that, his phone rang.

"Heh, speak of the devil," Sun Zhao said as he answered the call.

Over the phone, Shen Xin said, "Captain Sun, I think we can start recreating the scene now."

Just yesterday, when Broo and Huahua moved into the tree hollow and began their new life of love, Broo’s affinity meter had filled another bar, successfully entering the second stage.