Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 424 Goodbye, You Scoundrel
"There's a third person?"

As Director Wang finished speaking, everyone present frowned.

Director Wang nodded and continued, "Yes, the third person. Judging from the size of the fingerprint, it can be basically determined to be a male's right thumb. However, due to the long time that has passed and the improper preservation in the Bird's Nest, it's practically impossible to determine when the fingerprint was left. But one thing is certain: the victim's own fingerprint in that area was also pressed underneath this fingerprint. In other words, based solely on this contact surface, the third person was the last person to come into contact with that area. Logically speaking, such a thin necklace would not be worn while sleeping, which means..."

"That means that on the day of the incident, another person had contact with the necklace. But this doesn't match what we know about the victim!"

Xu Zhen couldn't help but speak up: "The victim was a woman living alone. Although she was married, her husband was far away in Gansu Province. Moreover, the investigation showed that she did not have another boyfriend in Xizhong City! The landlord also testified that there was never any sign of men coming and going in the rented house! Under such circumstances, how could she let a man touch her chest or take off her necklace for him? So I think the only possibility is that Xu Xiaochong had an accomplice!"

"But this time, Xu Xiaochong acted alone in the second crime."

Shi Zhenkang frowned and slowly said, "I remember last year's case very clearly. No traces of a third party were found at the scene. No traces of simultaneous assault were found on the victim's body either, which does not conform to conventional logic."

"There must be something we overlooked! This necklace is enough to prove that there was definitely another man with the victim! Whether he was an accomplice or not, it at least proves that our investigation had some oversights!"

Xu Zhen argued forcefully, his eyes wide, "Chief, I demand a full investigation be reopened! Even if it can be definitively proven that Xu Xiaochong committed that crime, the truth cannot be taken lightly! What if there really is another mastermind behind it all? Then our trial of Xu Xiaochong will become a joke! The murderer will definitely be laughing at us behind our backs! And the woman who was brutally murdered will never have her innocence truly redressed!"

"Isn't this a matter of course? Do you need to waste your breath?"

Shi Zhenkang waved his hand impatiently, "If you're going to investigate, stop wasting time here! First, have Director Wang put the fingerprints into the database for comparison and see if they match the target. If not, then have the resting comrades come back to work overtime!"

"..."

Xu Zhen was speechless, while Tang Xu and Li Jian beside him were rubbing their temples and sighing.

Good heavens! The guys in the station finally got a couple of days off after Xu Xiaochong's arrest, but after just one night, their vacation is gone. The killer has been caught, but the aftermath... it's probably not something that can be solved with just a few sleepless nights. In fact, because so much time has passed, this in-depth investigation might be even more complicated than finding the suspect! Of course, it's also possible that we'll find out the truth soon.

"Director Wang, the fingerprints are yours. I'm going to interrogate Xu Xiaochong! The evidence in both cases is irrefutable; his silence won't change anything. Maybe we can pry something out of him now!"

Xu Zhen acted decisively, directly bypassing his superiors to issue orders to Director Wang, and then without hesitation, grabbed Li Jian and hurriedly left.

"Ha ha……"

Director Wang looked at Shi Zhenkang with a mocking smile.

"Old Wang, in theory, the database should contain the fingerprints of everyone in the country! Even if the fingerprint you found is incomplete, there should still be a considerable chance of a match, right? You're the fingerprint expert in Xizhong City, this shouldn't be a piece of cake for you, right?"

Shi Zhenkang looked at Director Wang with an unchanged expression, and his words made Director Wang's expression freeze.

"The fingerprint is from a year ago, and it's been rubbed so badly by birds. Even if we could reconstruct part of it using technology, it would be too difficult to match it directly! Shi Zhenkang, you're making things difficult for me!"

Director Wang rolled his eyes at Shi Zhenkang, but then said he would definitely do his best. He added that even if he didn't match the fingerprints, he would put them in an expert exchange group and ask other relevant experts in China to take a look.

Shi Zhenkang nodded and stopped threatening the old man.

Moreover, no matter what, even if new developments are discovered in the case, Xu Xiaochong's crimes have at least been established. Even if he bites off his own tongue now, it won't change the fact that he will be sentenced to death.

Lin Ge breathed a sigh of relief. After working so hard all day, he hadn't let everyone down.

As for the rest of the story behind the scenes, let the police in Xizhong City worry about that! He's just a cat, and he's done everything he could! To still ask him to work is just taking a cat for granted.

Back at the hotel, Lin Ge begged Li Siyu to give him a bath.

The pine wax on her body couldn't be removed even with hot water; it was so sticky that it had clumped her fur together. Lin Ge found it increasingly unpleasant to look at, and after staring at it for a while, he picked up a fruit knife from the side and placed it in front of Li Siyu.

"Hey?"

Li Siyu glanced at the sharp fruit knife, then at Lin Ge's sullen face, and wondered what the cat was up to.

"Ow~"

Lin Ge used a melon seed to hook a few strands of hair that were stuck together, pulling painfully but still failing to remove the wax bead. He then looked up at Li Siyu again, sulking.

"Does Mimi want you to help her trim off these hairs that are covered in pine resin?"

Li Yiduo was the first to react, putting down his phone and rummaging through his parts bag, pulling out a small pair of folding scissors. Although the scissors were only the size of Lin Ge's fist, according to Li Yiduo, they cost him five hundred dollars.

"Damn rich people!"

Lin Ge was in a bad mood and didn't like anyone.

Especially when Li Siyu carefully pinched the fur on his body, cutting off the clumps of hair sticking to it one by one, and even piling them into a small pile at Lin Ge's feet, his expression became even more unpleasant.

"Um... Mimi, don't move, and don't get angry, okay?"

Li Siyu became increasingly flustered as she cut, mainly because each clump of cuts transformed Mimi's originally smooth and streamlined figure into numerous large and small dents. It wasn't noticeable from above, but upon closer inspection, small round indentations appeared on Mimi's belly, sides, and elbows, resembling the surface of the moon. Furthermore, Li Siyu's technique was rather rough, resulting in uneven and unsightly dents.

"Should I be thankful that my face is still intact?"

Lin Ge squinted at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, finding his appearance utterly displeasing. His previously satisfactory physique now looked like it had been chewed by a dog.

"How about we take it to the pet store to get it fixed?"

Li Siyu was also embarrassed, but what could she do? She had simply cut off every single strand of cat hair that was stuck to the surface, but she couldn't control what the cut would look like.

"no need!"

Lin Ge glared at Li Yiduo, who was snickering beside him. Seeing that Li Yiduo quickly turned his head to seriously fiddle with his drone, Lin Ge angrily opened the glass door of the balcony and lay down on an unknown grass planted in a flowerpot on the balcony to sulk.

"Quack quack~"

Suddenly a familiar voice rang out outside. Lin Ge's ears twitched, and when he looked up, he saw a damned magpie flapping its wings and squawking at him.

"You rascal! You even came all this way?"

Lin Ge recognized this guy at a glance. Who else could it be but the culprit who caused him to become like this? It's just a pity that the scoundrel has already settled the previous conflict with that necklace, so Lin Ge has no reason to take action against it now.

"Gaa!"

The sly bird was still chuckling, and Lin Ge could even see obvious mockery and sneer in its eyes. The creature flapped its wings and landed on the balcony railing, hopping and hopping step by step toward Lin Ge.

"If you still dare to peck at me, I'll pluck all your feathers today!"

Lin Ge glared at him fiercely.

"Cuck!"

The scoundrel immediately backed down, folded its wings, squatted down, and then imitated a crow's caw. Its tone seemed to say, "I am a crow, not the same magpie that was about to peck at you."

Seeing that Lingo flicked its tail and stopped threatening it, the scoundrel fell from the bar to the ground.

Turning its head to look at the two humans inside who seemed to be chatting and joking and hadn't noticed it, it curiously approached Lingo and stared at Lingo's face and beard from bottom to top, its eyes still showing eagerness.

"Aren't you afraid I'll eat you up? Awooo~"

Lin Ge suddenly stretched his neck and leaned closer, his big, bell-like eyes pressing against the bird's face, his large beak also eager to try.

"Gah?"

The scoundrel paused for a moment.

It took a while to react. Its eyes rolled back, its body stiffened, and it fell straight to the side, motionless, as if it had been scared to death.

"Playing dead again!"

Lingo reached out his claw and poked at the bird. Seeing that it swayed like a roly-poly toy without moving, he disdainfully let go of it.

"Ugh! If the other cats see me like this when I get back, my aura as the King of Cats will be completely ruined! I'll go from a dignified King of Cats to a clown cat in just a few minutes! It's all this wretched bird's fault, I really want to eat it..." Lin Ge sighed and then suddenly turned his head, immediately seeing the wretched bird sneaking away. Lin Ge's sudden gaze startled it, and it immediately reacted and lay down again, pretending to be dead.

"Pah, you're trying to fool idiots!"

Lin Ge glared at it with disdain.

"Ka!"

The bird that had been pretending to be dead let out a shout, seemingly refuting Lin Ge's words.

"Mimi has made new friends in Xizhong City!"

Hiding behind Li Yiduo, Li Siyu watched with curiosity and excitement as Mimi interacted with the magpie. With the magpie's interruption, Mimi seemed to have stopped focusing on her own problems. She and the magpie, one speaking cat language and the other bird language, seemed to be able to communicate. And the magpie, facing a predator that could eat it, not only wasn't afraid but also acted very friendly, eventually even flying to Mimi's head and arrogantly looking around while chattering.

"If you dare to shit on my head, I'll kill you! This time it's no joke, you hear me?"

Lingo remained motionless, tolerating the cheeky bird. Mainly because the bird was genuinely interesting; it was the first time Lingo had ever seen a bird dare to approach him.

"Ka!"

The bird squawked again, hopping from Lin Ge's head to his body. The moment it landed, it saw Lin Ge's slightly swaying tail, and its eyes widened in shock.

"Even the tail is not allowed!"

Lingo didn't give the scoundrel any chance to commit evil.

"Qua~"

The bird tilted its head and thought for a moment, then eagerly decided to disguise itself as a crow before making its move. But before it could even get close to the tip of Ringo's tail, Ringo's tail suddenly lashed out, as fast as a whip.

"Quack~"

The bird fluttered away and tried to fly, but several feathers were still ripped off. It angrily landed on Lingo's head and lowered its head to peck at him, but Lingo reached out his claws, grabbed it, pressed it against the edge of the flowerpot, and then opened his mouth wide to approach it.

"..."

With its head tilted to the side, the scoundrel closed its eyes and pretended to be dead again.

Lin Ge angrily tossed it aside.

But within seconds, the rascal regained its energy and fearlessly approached again.

"This bird was very likely once domesticated. Although magpies are not supposed to be domesticated, this one was very likely trained and is an anomaly among magpies."

By observing the magpie's familiarity with the human balcony and its lack of fear of the two people inside, Li Yiduo deduced that the magpie had at least been fed by humans before. This is quite rare for a magpie; sparrows are more often seen doing so.

"Should we take it back to Zhanghe Police Station as well? To be honest, Mimi's cat army is already quite formidable, but if we could add another air force member, wouldn't it be even more powerful?"

Li Siyu suddenly thought of even more.

Hmm...maybe I can give it a try?

Li Yiduo was somewhat tempted.

The main reason is that magpies are very attached to their homes. Once you get along well with them and gain their trust, they will indeed be willing to live with you. Magpies are among the most intelligent birds, and they could certainly be a help to Mimi and the Zhanghe Police Station. However, currently, this bird only trusts Mimi, so whether or not it can be taken back depends on how Mimi interacts with it in the future.

"Bring it back to Zhangzhou? Impossible!"

Lin Ge turned around speechlessly and gave the two people in the room a disdainful look.

These two guys didn't know, but Ling Ge himself knew very well that the rascal only regarded him as a rare friend! And friends and family are different. The rascal's home was over at Dahongshan Reservoir, that was where it lived.

"Gah?"

Seeing that Lin Ge was ignoring it, the cheeky bird approached with some confusion. It hadn't had enough fun yet; how could this big cat be slacking off!

"Mimi!"

Li Siyu suddenly brought over a small plate of sunflower seeds. She didn't go out but just pushed the plate onto the balcony. Then she winked at Lin Ge and said, "Mimi, treat our new friend well! Make him feel at home, you know? Make him feel like he's at home."

"You're just bored!"

Lin Ge sighed helplessly, but still followed Li Siyu's instructions and pulled the plate from the doorway to his front, then beckoned the cheeky bird hiding on the balcony railing to come over quickly.

"Cuck!"

The bird glanced at Li Siyu, who had retreated, then at Lin Ge, who had a casual expression on his face. It tilted its head and said a foreign language phrase before flapping its wings and landing in front of Lin Ge.

Looking at the sunflower seeds on the plate in front of Lin Ge, it leaned over and pecked at them twice but didn't eat them. Instead, it turned back to look at Li Siyu inside the room.

"This guy is smarter than I thought! He's also quite vigilant."

No sooner had the words left its mouth than the mischievous bird picked up a sunflower seed and began to crunch and chew on it. After a few bites, the shell broke open, and it spat the seed into the plate, then picked up the kernel that had fallen out and ate it.

"This bird...it can actually peel sunflower seeds!"

Li Siyu's eyes widened, and she grabbed Li Yiduo's arm, saying, "See that? It actually knows how to peel sunflower seeds! I was just lamenting that the hotel didn't have any millet or anything, but it can eat sunflower seeds by itself without anyone's help!"

"Doesn't this further prove that it was trained? Of course, it would be too much of a genius to have learned it just by seeing people peel it like that."

A strange glint flashed in Li Yiduo's eyes as he recalled how the bird had hidden the gold necklace in its nest.

How the bird got the necklace is still unknown. But one thing is for sure: even if it didn't know it was a thief, it must have a good eye! Maybe sending a drone to check out the bird's nest might reveal even more treasures inside!
"Ka!"

After eating a few melon seeds, the rascal seemed to have had enough.

But it didn't stop peeling the sunflower seeds. Instead, it patiently and meticulously removed each seed from the plate. It used its beak to push the kernels to one side and its claws to remove the shells, working in an orderly fashion, almost as if it had obsessive-compulsive disorder. Once all the seeds were processed, the mischievous bird raised its head and squawked at Lin Ge, who was watching with curiosity. Then, it lowered its head, used its hard beak to press against the edge of the plastic plate, and gently pushed it towards Li Siyu.

"Yituo!"

Li Siyu was even more excited. This bird was actually peeling melon seeds to offer them some!
"Hehe, that's really impressive!"

At this moment, Li Yiduo was truly impressed. This was a magpie, neither a myna nor a crow, yet it could be so incredibly intelligent and perceptive.

"Thank you, thank you, little bird!"

Li Siyu walked over cautiously, thanking the bird as she reached for the peeled melon seeds on the plate.

"Fool!"

Lin Ge immediately noticed the teasing look in the bird's eyes, and then looked at Li Siyu, who was already moved to tears, and couldn't help but sigh.

Sure enough, the bird suddenly moved the next second.

Like a whirlwind, the scoundrel lowered its head and quickly pecked at the sunflower seeds on the plate. One by one, in the few seconds that Li Siyu was stunned, the dozens of sunflower seeds on the plate were swallowed clean by the scoundrel.

Li Siyu remained in the outstretched hand position, but her whole body froze.

"Gah~~ Oh~~ Woohoo~"

The smug bird squawked triumphantly, its neck even bulging from the sunflower seeds. But its good fortune didn't last long; it suddenly choked, and began to gag while flapping its wings and crashing around wildly.

(End of this chapter)