Chapter 31: First Time Joining an Interrogation
“Name. Sex. Age.”
“Don’t you already know? Why ask me?”
Inside the interrogation room, Lin Jiangye and Shang Fuyan sat facing Zhang Qiaotian. Outside the one-way glass stood a crowd of people—including officers from Gao City’s Public Security Bureau.
When Hong Xingwang learned that Wen’an District’s Criminal Investigation Squad had caught the killer in just two days, his vision went black on the spot. He nearly fainted.
For a moment, he even suspected Shang Fuyan was lying. But as a former colleague, he knew Shang Fuyan would never joke about something like this—especially since the Wen’an District bureau chief had directly invited Gao City’s people to observe the interrogation.
If it were fake, how could they dare be this bold?
What he couldn’t understand was: how did Shang Fuyan catch the killer in only two days? Did their people run into the killer by sheer luck during the investigation?
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
When they arrived at Wen’an District station and heard that the suspect had been subdued right at a chicken farm—and that evidence like sevoflurane had been found—whatever hope he still clung to died completely.
“We ask, you answer. Got it?” Lin Jiangye sat inside with a lazy, unbothered air that made the Gao City officers inexplicably annoyed.
“Who is he?” This guy didn’t look like a cop. Why was Wen’an District letting someone like this take part in an interrogation?
The bureau chief laughed warmly. “He’s our bureau’s secret weapon—our biggest helper in finding the killer so quickly.”
That single sentence shut Gao City up immediately.
Secret weapon… biggest helper… and Lin Jiangye could come and go in the station freely. Even if he wasn’t police, he was clearly an insider. With that kind of merit, what was wrong with sitting in on an interrogation?
But what they didn’t know was that to Zhang Qiaotian, Lin Jiangye’s presence was the biggest fuse of all.
After Lin Jiangye calmly said a single sentence, Zhang Qiaotian snapped like a mental patient mid-episode. He lurched as if to stand, then slammed the table when he realized he couldn’t get up.
“It’s all your fault, it’s all your fault! If it weren’t for you, the police would never have found me or caught me!”
Lin Jiangye arched a brow, folding his arms across his chest. “Oh? So you do understand something.”
“It was that egret, wasn’t it? It saw me kill someone—then it brought you here, didn’t it!” While being taken back, Zhang Qiaotian had replayed his movements again and again in the patrol car.
Compared to the earlier cases, he’d made too many mistakes this time. One was the two fishermen he’d run into in the reed bed—but they probably hadn’t seen him, so they couldn’t provide anything useful.
The other was that he hadn’t expected an egret from the wetland park to come warm itself at the chicken farm—and witness him in the act.
Back then he’d been completely carried away. He’d flung a knife at the egret, injuring its wing and scaring it off.
If the egret had “spirit,” it wasn’t impossible for it to lead police back to him.
But even if it brought police, the police should’ve only guessed he’d injured it by accident—how did they jump to murder?
Zhang Qiaotian fixed Lin Jiangye with a sinister stare. And yes—his biggest mistake was assuming the young man in front of him was just an ordinary fresh graduate!
If he’d known… if he’d known, he should’ve killed this guy the moment he appeared, then run!
The instant Lin Jiangye saw the killing intent in his eyes, he understood exactly what Zhang Qiaotian was thinking.
“Want to kill me? Nice dream. What makes you think you can? You’re someone who can only act after knocking people out with anesthetic—and you think you can take me one-on-one? Who gave you that confidence?”
The mocking smile on Lin Jiangye’s face stabbed Zhang Qiaotian hard. The man trembled with rage.
Zhang Qiaotian hadn’t forgotten that kick that blasted the door. With that strength, he seriously suspected his hand might’ve fractured.
“I… I have a gun!”
“Did you fire it? Do you even know how? When you ran, why didn’t you take it? If you had a gun, you wouldn’t have been afraid of the raven! So why didn’t you bring it when you fled?”
Those words filled Zhang Qiaotian with regret. Lin Jiangye was right—if he’d brought the gun, he wouldn’t have been humiliated by a raven, a cat, and a dog!
Damn it! Damn it! It’s all because of this guy!
Seeing the killer completely melt down, Shang Fuyan couldn’t help laughing—and the officers watching outside laughed too.
What was this called? One thing restrains another?
Zhang Qiaotian finally seemed to snap back to himself. After taking several rough, hoarse breaths, he asked, “How did you know I killed someone?”
He needed to know how he’d been exposed! He’d committed so many cases in Gao City and they hadn’t even brushed his tail—yet here, in two days, they found him!
Lin Jiangye suddenly smiled and asked again, “Name. Sex. Age.”
“Tell me!!!”
“Cooperate properly. When we finish asking everything, I’ll tell you. Don’t try to hide anything—evidence has already been found. If you cooperate, I can answer your questions, including where my crows and cats and dogs came from. If you don’t cooperate…” He paused and smiled. “You’re doomed anyway.”
The young man’s smile formed faint dimples, making him look cute—yet with his pale teeth showing under the backlighting, it somehow felt chilling to the bone.
Maybe he truly wanted to know where he’d slipped up. Zhang Qiaotian explained the entire case clearly, including where he got the sevoflurane.
He really did obtain it from a hospital—by threatening a doctor into prescribing it as a “prescription drug.”
“Why would he agree to prescribe it?” Shang Fuyan frowned. “Once it’s exposed, he becomes your accomplice. Not only would his medical license be revoked, he’d go to prison too.”
Zhang Qiaotian chuckled. He raised a hand and touched his artificial eye. In his remaining eye, hatred boiled.
He’d become disabled like this because of that doctor!
The accident itself was real—but if that doctor had treated him properly back then, he could have kept both his eye and his leg.
He used that to blackmail the doctor into supplying him with sevoflurane again and again. At first, the doctor didn’t know what he intended to do—until the cases were exposed.
Shang Fuyan continued, “One question: why did you come to Yue City?”
He’d checked Zhang Qiaotian’s movement pattern. The man was very familiar with Gao City’s terrain. Typically, killers didn’t stray far from areas they knew.
Zhang Qiaotian curled his lips into a silent smile. “Because my dear doctor got promoted.”
For sevoflurane, he couldn’t be too far from the doctor. But—
“Hahaha… hahahahaha, that idiot!”
Hearing the manic laughter, a strong sense of dread rose in everyone’s chest.
Especially when they remembered they’d dug up nine full bottles of sevoflurane—getting that many at once… was the doctor still alive?
They weren’t worried about an accomplice’s well-being. They were worried the doctor was already dead.
Sure enough, when Lin Jiangye abruptly asked whether he’d killed the doctor, Zhang Qiaotian nodded without fear and admitted it.
“Yeah. He said he didn’t want to help me anymore, that he wanted to live properly again. And me? He wants a proper life—what about my eye and my leg?” So he used the excuse of needing ten bottles at once, claiming he’d never come again.
In reality, that man was already dead.
“Who is he? Where did you bury him?” Shang Fuyan demanded urgently.
This time, Zhang Qiaotian refused to speak. Instead, he provoked them. “Go find him.”
Then he shifted his gaze to Lin Jiangye. “Let me see your ‘skills.’ If you find him, I’ll confess the earlier cases too.”
Lin Jiangye laughed in anger. Using his tricks against him, huh?
But—“Is that hard?” Honestly, Lin Jiangye didn’t think it was hard at all.
He was someone who could command the crows across Wen’an District—even Yue City.
When it came to the scent of death and rot, who in a city was more sensitive than crows?
Seeing how confidently Lin Jiangye spoke, Zhang Qiaotian started to panic.
Lin Jiangye patted Shang Fuyan’s shoulder, opened the door, and walked out. Right in front of Gao City and Wen’an District officers alike, he said two lines to the raven and released it into the sky.
“And then? You’re not going to move out?” Gao City’s people stared at Lin Jiangye in confusion, having no idea what he was doing.
Meanwhile, Hong Xingwang and the major crimes team felt their hearts drop. They remembered Shang Fuyan mentioning that this external special consultant could communicate with animals—something they’d dismissed as nonsense.
Not long after, a vast swarm of crows arrived, blackening the area as they perched on walls and streetlights outside the station.
The spectacular sight immediately drew passersby, who instinctively pulled out their phones to take photos.
“Caw caw!” One crow landed on Lin Jiangye’s arm and gently tapped his cheek with its beak.
[Human, what do you need crow to do this time!]
“Find a body—same as usual. The crow that finds it can name its reward. Everyone else, come eat at my house tonight. I’ve got a new human who cooks really well. Opal likes him a lot.”
Tourmaline stood on Lin Jiangye’s shoulder and nodded wildly!
This morning’s meal had been Jiang Xin’s cooking—so good it hadn’t even noticed a cat lying right next to it.
The crow tilted its head, cawed once, then flew off quickly.
“Alright. Now we just wait for news.” Lin Jiangye wasn’t worried even if Zhang Qiaotian buried the body. As long as the corpse had been on the ground at any point, it would leave the scent of death behind.
And that scent wouldn’t disappear quickly.
Watching a huge flock of crows appear and vanish, everyone behind him stood there stunned. The bureau chief had seen Lin Jiangye direct crows before, but it had never been this grand.
“What a shame!” She slapped her thigh, regretting she hadn’t taken a photo.
If she posted it, the neighboring districts would envy her to death.
Hong Xingwang’s face turned ashen. He realized Shang Fuyan hadn’t lied at all. In fact, Shang Fuyan had wanted to help them solve the case faster from the beginning—otherwise he wouldn’t have revealed this “secret weapon” so openly.
But what had Hong Xingwang done? He’d yelled, mocked, insulted… Thinking back to what he’d said, Shang Fuyan not hitting him was already mercy for old times’ sake.
And now, whatever “old times” remained were gone.
Even though the final outcome wasn’t visible yet, just summoning the crows like that was enough to prove Lin Jiangye’s methods.
At this point, Shang Fuyan came out too, leaving Zhang Qiaotian alone in the interrogation room.
“Once you left, he refused to say anything else. And I couldn’t be bothered wasting words on him.” Shang Fuyan had interrogation methods, sure—but why waste energy?
Once the body was found, Zhang Qiaotian would break down again.
He rested a hand on Lin Jiangye’s shoulder and guided him to sit somewhere and rest for a bit.
Everyone else exchanged looks, then returned to their posts and kept working.
The crows were extremely efficient. In a little over an hour, a crow found the doctor’s body—inside an abandoned, foul drainage ditch behind the hospital.
Lin Jiangye didn’t need to retrieve the body himself. But when he named the location, Gao City’s people were dumbstruck.
Even more dumbstruck: when they went with Wen’an District officers, they actually found the body in that filthy ditch.
“He… really understands animal language?” Hong Xingwang felt a pain and regret he’d never known before.
Only now did he realize what he had truly missed.
Just the killer? Of course not.
If he’d been calmer—or even just patient enough to verify Shang Fuyan’s claim—he never would’ve ended up in conflict with them.
By then, he could ask for the other party’s contact information—so that in the future, when he ran into a thorny problem, maybe he could invite him over to help!
Now, everything was too late.
After Lin Jiangye spent quite a while coaxing the crows who had found the body, he and Shang Fuyan returned to the interrogation room.
When Zhang Qiaotian heard the location Lin Jiangye named, just as Shang Fuyan predicted, he completely collapsed again.
“No… that’s impossible. How did you find it? That place was so remote, and the stench there was enough to cover a corpse’s smell!” How long had it been? Had a whole day passed outside already?
Knock knock knock!
Lin Jiangye tapped the table, dragging his attention back. “We’ve already found the body. Alright—now it’s your turn to talk.”
“I won’t—” Zhang Qiaotian tried to back out again, but Lin Jiangye slammed a fist onto the table, leaving an actual fist mark on the metal surface.
“My patience is limited.” The young man stared at him coldly from above, and that lofty gaze made Zhang Qiaotian’s breathing turn frantic.
Shang Fuyan also rapped the tabletop, wearing a half-smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “Let me remind you: whether you talk or not actually doesn’t make much difference. Your name will be on the police bulletin, famous nationwide. By then, all those professors who praised you will know that the ‘promising talent’ they admired… was nothing but a murderer.”
There was a difference, though. If Zhang Qiaotian confessed everything, at least he could die sooner.
If he didn’t, the police would drag out the investigation into the Gao City cases—and he would hear even more discussion about himself.
Zhang Qiaotian wasn’t stupid. He understood the difference. And for someone like him, letting those professors learn what he’d done was more painful than death.
He’d always taken pride in his sculpting technique—professors from a professional academy had praised him personally. It was the last pillar holding up his dignity.
Sure enough, Zhang Qiaotian began trembling like an asthma attack had hit him.
“No… no!!!”
“Then just say everything,” Shang Fuyan said with a smile. “Wouldn’t it be better to give you a quick end sooner?”
His lips were smiling, but the smile looked terrifying.
Outside, Yan Zhou and the others listening in all twitched at the corners of their mouths and rubbed their arms instinctively. “Captain Shang really loves going for the heart. Scary.”
For someone insecure yet arrogant, his days in the art academy were among his few genuinely good memories.
And those professors had naturally become his spiritual mentors.
If those mentors learned the student they’d “valued” was a murderer, their beautiful impression would shatter completely.
Lin Jiangye glanced at Shang Fuyan. Why did his methods feel so… dark?
Zhang Qiaotian had already been beaten down by Lin Jiangye. Now he finally broke for good—crying like a waterfall. But no one felt a shred of sympathy.
After he confessed everything, he begged Shang Fuyan again and again not to expose his real name.
Shang Fuyan smiled and nodded. Only then did Zhang Qiaotian let out a breath.
Right before leaving, Lin Jiangye “kindly” told him a secret. “You being found really was because of the egret. The egret personally told me you were killing people.”
Not just the egret. A little hedgehog in the wetland park remembered his license plate. A black snake knew he’d collided with a blue truck. And from the dumping site to the main road, a magpie remembered his plate had the digits “1, 1, 0.”
“And there was also a flock of night herons by the reed bed. Master Night Heron told me you smelled like a chicken coop. Thanks to them, we learned one of your eyes is fake—and your leg is lame.” Lin Jiangye listed every animal that had provided him information. Watching Zhang Qiaotian’s expression turn steadily more terrified, Lin Jiangye felt happier and happier.
“So what if those two fishermen didn’t see you? So what if you really tossed the body into the river? Even if you hadn’t injured the egret, even if you hadn’t hit the truck—I could still find plenty of special witnesses.”
Birds in the sky, fish in the water, and animals on the ground—everything would become Lin Jiangye’s eyes.
“With me, unless you can ensure there isn’t a single living creature nearby, you’ll be full of holes everywhere. Sooner or later, I would’ve caught you.” Zhang Qiaotian looked like he was about to faint.
He’d replayed it so many times—only to be told that animals saw every move he made, and the person in front of him could actually understand what they said?
Zhang Qiaotian didn’t dare disbelieve it. Otherwise, he couldn’t explain how the police had tracked him down.
But that explanation was even more infuriating than “I made a mistake”!
After Zhang Qiaotian was taken away, Lin Jiangye grabbed Shang Fuyan’s arm. “You really agreed not to put his full name in the bulletin?”
Why protect a murderer who was going to die anyway?
But everyone around burst out laughing. “Consultant Lin, you actually believed Captain Shang? He didn’t even say anything!”
Lin Jiangye went blank. A large hand came down and covered the top of his head, and Shang Fuyan’s amused voice sounded above him.
“I was just stretching my neck. Besides, once the court convicts him, his full name will be public anyway. Whether we publish it or not doesn’t matter.”
Even if he “agreed,” so what? He didn’t represent the court—right?
Lin Jiangye pressed down the corners of his mouth, barely stopping himself from laughing. He knew this guy was dark—so he hadn’t been wrong.
He looked at the thick stack of transcripts in Shang Fuyan’s hands. Zhang Qiaotian had described everything down to his thoughts while committing the acts.
Just as they’d suspected, he chose victims for their beautiful bodies. The most horrifying part was that when he cut open their flesh with a knife, the anesthetic had already worn off—meaning they were awake, watching themselves bleed out and drift toward death.
“Truly cruel.” With cruelty like that, Zhang Qiaotian deserved a bullet.
The moment Lin Jiangye stepped out, he was immediately surrounded by crows.
[Shiny! Crow wants shiny too!]
[Crow doesn’t want shiny. Crow wants a fluffy nest! It’s cold, crow is so cold!]
[Can crow have clothes? Like humans! But it can’t block crow from flying!]
“Okay, okay, okay—everything, everything!” Lin Jiangye petted them one by one. Those wishes were easy—he’d buy them later!
Wen’an District officers watched Lin Jiangye surrounded by crows and felt inexplicably envious. Before, they hadn’t thought crows were anything special—at most they’d heard that crow feathers were “iridescent black.”
But now? Crows were smart, loyal, obedient—and when happy, they even wagged their tails like dogs, perfectly filling the sky with the absence of little puppies.
Sure, they couldn’t afford the real “shiny” gifts Consultant Lin bought. But glass beads, or sparkly hair clips—those they could buy to tempt crows.
After all, crows couldn’t tell real gems from fake.
Lin Jiangye, wrapped in a cloud of crows, said goodbye and took his kids to pick out gifts first, then went home.
After Shang Fuyan watched him leave, he turned—and saw Hong Xingwang staring at him with a complicated face. “You really never misjudged people.”
The smile vanished from Shang Fuyan’s face instantly. He coldly glanced at him, walked past, and handed the transcripts to the bureau chief.
“Chief, when is that award money for the last good-deed incident coming in?” It had been a month already, hadn’t it? Why wasn’t it here yet?
The bureau chief coughed twice and promised she’d hurry it up.
Then she brought up the case: “Once we’ve organized all the materials and you’ve written the case-closing report, I can issue an official notice announcing the serial murder case has been solved. The bonus this time will definitely be big—when the time comes, I’ll treat everyone to a celebration banquet!”
“Boss is generous!!!” Yan Zhou and the others immediately shouted in celebration.
The major crimes team was happy too. Even though the case hadn’t “belonged” to them, they’d assisted Captain Shang—so they would definitely get at least some credit.
Plus the earlier villa kidnapping-and-murder case—next year they might even get commendations!
Oh right—and the rescued victim had even had family and friends deliver them a thank-you banner, hehe!
Thanks, Consultant Lin!
Hong Xingwang, ignored by Shang Fuyan, wasn’t angry now. He’d lost the right to be angry at Shang Fuyan. And he had a much more urgent problem to deal with.
Once Wen’an District announced they’d caught the serial killer, there would definitely be people questioning Gao City police competence—and the first to be hit would be their major crimes unit.
The rest of Gao City’s people looked awful. They’d already heard from others just how capable Lin Jiangye was.
Normally, police solved cases by investigating nearby clues, finding eyewitnesses, then piecing together the timeline from witness statements.
But Lin Jiangye’s “special witnesses” could provide the most direct and lethal information—like the chicken-coop clue.
Their senses were sharper than humans’. Many key details could only be supplied by them.
“I said before—once Consultant Lin’s reputation spreads, anyone who wants to commit a crime in the future won’t just have to avoid cameras and crowds. They’ll have to avoid every living creature around too.” Qi Gaoyang grinned.
The bureau chief nodded in agreement. That really wasn’t wrong.
A layer of smug pride rose on Shang Fuyan’s face again. He felt lucky all over again that he’d snatched Gu Feng’s case before the major crimes unit—otherwise he wouldn’t even know Lin Jiangye now!
The bureau chief couldn’t bear to watch. Shang Fuyan used to be normal—after meeting Lin Jiangye, he was like a different person.
But honestly, if it were her, she’d turn soft too.
A special talent like this was rare even worldwide. The moment Lin Jiangye revealed his ability, it wouldn’t just be the police—forestry officials would be crying and begging him to join them.
Not to mention zoos—he’d be a scorching-hot top-tier talent.
Meanwhile, after Lin Jiangye got in the car, he suddenly remembered he’d meant to ask Shang Fuyan how to open a zoo. Too bad Zhang Qiaotian had completely thrown him off and he forgot.
He sent Shang Fuyan a message, then went shopping with the crows.
Before going home, he also stopped by the pet hospital to see how the cats recovering from spay/neuter were doing.
After he posted about the adoptable cats, he quickly received lots of new contact cards—friends of friends who liked the cats in the photos and wanted to adopt.
Lin Jiangye added them all and told them where the pet hospital was. If they really wanted to adopt, they could go take a look first—but they would have to wait until the cats recovered before bringing them home.
So when he arrived at the pet hospital, it was more crowded than usual.
“Mr. Lin! You’re finally here!” The vets were thrilled to see him.
Why?
Because lately, they’d been getting beaten up by the big black cat, Ku-Ku style!
Feed it—get slapped. Try to pet it—get slapped. Even just walking past, the big black cat would suddenly stick out a paw and smack them, QAQ.
Wuwuwu, it’s just neutering—why be this vicious, QAQ?!
Lin Jiangye gave an awkward laugh, walked up to Sang Biao, and pointed at its nose in warning. “I’m telling you—if you hit people again, I won’t take you to find that human.”
Sang Biao’s narrowed eyes snapped wide open, and a low growl rumbled from its throat. [Human! You dare!]
“Heh. Why wouldn’t I dare?”
Man and cat stared each other down. In the end, Sang Biao surrendered.
[Fine, fine! I won’t hit anymore, okay?!] Furious, it turned its back and stuck its butt toward Lin Jiangye.
But the kitty forgot—what a temptation its butt was to humans.
Looking at that thick, soft, chubby butt, Lin Jiangye gave a villainous snicker and slapped his hand down on the fluffy rear, closing his eyes in satisfaction.
“Meow-ow!” [Molestation!!!]
