Chapter 39: Two Killers
The location of the corpse pit lay halfway up Mount Taibai, tucked behind a sheer rock face. With the rock wall acting as a screen, it was extremely well hidden.
Once they saw where it was, every officer understood why the killer had chosen this spot—hidden enough that anyone unfamiliar with the area would never suspect there was a large open space behind the rock face.
That way, even if someone happened to come near the vicinity while the killer was at work, they still wouldn’t be able to find them.
“Looks like the killer must have wandered around here many times,” someone said. Otherwise, how would they have found a place this concealed?
Lin Jiangye had thought the same. Unfortunately, the white deer and the snowy owl—two thoroughly unreliable little fools—hadn’t paid attention to the humans coming and going. If they had, he might’ve at least gotten a description.
“Not necessarily… I think it’d be hard,” Shang Fuyan poured cold water on it from the side.
When Lin Jiangye turned back, confused, Shang Fuyan handed him his phone. On it was the temperature chart for the past half month.
“There was a heavy snow earlier, and the temperature dropped close to minus twenty. It’s risen a bit recently, but it’s still minus eleven. In weather like that, everyone’s wrapped in thick down jackets, heavy hats, and when the snow’s bad they’ll even wear sunglasses. So even if small animals can recognize faces—what can they actually see?”
He wasn’t wrong.
Under those conditions, animals wouldn’t be able to identify much. And in a place like this, even if they encountered humans, they generally wouldn’t approach.
“And with heavy snow… you might not even catch much scent…” Lin Jiangye sighed silently. But even as he said that, he didn’t stop. He kept walking toward where he’d heard movement earlier.
After skirting a patch of forest and reaching the mouth of a cave, Lin Jiangye turned—and met the gaze of a towering stag.
This stag was larger and more robust than typical males. Just in height alone, its body reached Lin Jiangye’s waist, not to mention the imposing, thick antlers crowning its head.
One look was enough for Lin Jiangye to know who it was—the deer king of the white-deer herd.
Only a sika deer with a body this powerful could deserve the title of deer king.
The deer king clearly hadn’t expected Lin Jiangye to find him so easily. The moment it spotted a human, it backed up several steps, then stood on a small slope, looking down at the two humans with a cool, measured gaze.
Shang Fuyan noticed the scrutiny. Seeing Lin Jiangye stay silent, he also kept his mouth shut.
After a while, Lin Jiangye finished sizing it up and finally spoke.
“Your little deer came looking for me. You know that?”
The deer king obviously understood which “little deer” he meant. It nodded decisively, then let out a long, far-carrying call.
Soon, a doe arrived. The moment she saw the white deer bouncing nearby, fury flared across her face. She lowered her head and slammed into the white deer’s forehead.
“You ran off again! What if you’d run into a beast?!”
The doe was livid, headbutting the white deer over and over. Lin Jiangye wanted to stop it, but had no idea where to even intervene.
“Let her vent,” the deer king said quietly, sometime during the chaos. “She’s been worried sick since the child went missing—and that child truly deserves a proper lesson.”
Lin Jiangye turned and looked down at him.
Then, right in front of the deer king, he reached out and patted the antlers. “Solid.”
Shang Fuyan watched, heart leaping into his throat, terrified the deer king would snap and spear Lin Jiangye.
Those antlers looked like they could lift Lin Jiangye clean off the ground.
But the deer king didn’t get angry at all. Instead, it nudged its antlers closer into Lin Jiangye’s hand.
“If they weren’t solid, I wouldn’t be deer king.”
Fair point.
Lin Jiangye nodded and got to business. “The white deer says it often plays around here. Do you often see a human lurking nearby?”
Surprisingly, the deer king shook its head.
Just as Lin Jiangye was about to suspect the killer could appear and vanish like a ghost, the deer king added, flatly:
“Not one. Two.”
Lin Jiangye pinched the bridge of his nose. The deer king’s dramatic pause nearly gave him a heart attack.
But the deer king didn’t think there was anything wrong with what it said. The human asked about “one” person—so of course it had to deny it, because what it saw was “two.”
Even so, that answer gave them something critical:
There were two killers—or one killer with an accomplice.
And that explained how a pit that large could’ve been dug.
Without someone helping from above, the digger could’ve ended up trapped inside, freezing to death.
“Can you tell their gender and height?” Lin Jiangye asked.
The deer king thought for a moment, then stepped back and eyed Lin Jiangye and Shang Fuyan.
“One male human. One female human. Both shorter than you two.”
Then it walked to the rock wall.
The sudden appearance of the massive stag startled several officers nearby. As they instinctively moved back, Lin Jiangye lifted his hand.
“It’s fine. It’s the white deer’s family elder.”
An elder—not just a parent. The deer king was the most intimidating senior in the herd.
His earlier prayer had come true: a reliable, steady-headed “grown-up” had finally shown up.
Hearing it was the white deer’s “parent,” the officers immediately felt less afraid.
The deer king gave Lin Jiangye a long look, then used its antlers to scratch a mark into the rock face.
“The female stood here—about this tall. The male was here.”
Two height marks appeared.
Lin Jiangye quickly relayed it to the station chief. The officers pulled out tools and measured.
“Female suspect: around 165 cm. Male: around 178 cm. There are two killers.”
With a male and a female suspect confirmed, the chief immediately ordered checks on all non-locals still in town.
“I don’t even know if they’ve run already… If they ran, we’re in trouble,” the chief muttered, feeling his head about to explode.
Eight lives. This would shake the whole country.
And in that moment, he whirled on Lin Jiangye, clamped both hands around his, and wailed:
“Consultant Lin! Mr. Lin—could you temporarily serve as a special consultant for Taibai Town Police Station? We’ll share part of the bonus with you too!!”
Now he finally understood why Yue City had rushed to secure a “special consultant” title for Lin Jiangye. If they didn’t lock him down early, what if someone else snatched him away?
“Hey—wait, wait, wait!”
Lin Jiangye was about to refuse. At heart he only wanted to help the white deer clean out “dirty things” from its home. He wasn’t even local—why should he get involved in solving the case?
But the deer king cut in, voice low and calm:
“Weren’t you already helping them?”
Lin Jiangye froze, suddenly unable to argue.
Right. If he truly didn’t want to help, he wouldn’t have bothered finding the deer king and asking about the killers in the first place.
“Please!” the chief begged. “I’ll even— I’ll even take you to see a sable? A purple sable?”
Lin Jiangye’s eyes blew wide.
Done. Deal.
A sable—an under-first-class protected animal. He wanted to pet one!
Watching Lin Jiangye instantly light up, the chief felt he’d just learned how to hold this consultant’s heart in the palm of his hand—if—
Before he could finish his thought, a cold, razor-sharp gaze landed on him. The chief’s neck went icy.
He reflexively touched his throat—thick scarf. Hat—also thick. Yet he still felt chilled all over.
He looked up.
Shang Fuyan was staring at him, wearing a smile that wasn’t really a smile.
So he’d noticed the little schemes—and was warning him silently.
The chief let out an awkward “hehe,” pretending he understood nothing—though inside, his idea hadn’t died at all.
After being thoroughly tempted, Lin Jiangye continued hunting down nearby animals to ask about the two killers.
The white deer’s mother had once heard commotion here. When she came to check, she’d seen the two humans digging.
Because the humans had tools, she didn’t approach.
Bixi helped him gather birds from the surrounding area. The birds had seen the two humans coming and going too—but none dared get close.
“They said those humans were so fierce,” Bixi reported. “Especially the tall male. If birds got near, he’d throw things to drive them away.”
Fierce—so, a bad temper?
“Anything distinctive?” Lin Jiangye pressed, unwilling to give up. When digging, they’d have to remove something—hat, scarf, gloves—otherwise it’d be hard to work.
This time, Bixi actually did get something useful.
“Yes! Yes! A chubby little ‘jiu’ saw it!”
A “fat jiu”? A long-tailed tit?
Bixi nodded frantically. It had indeed seen a row of plump, round little birds squeezed together on a branch.
“Where are they?” Lin Jiangye trudged through thick snow, following the raven deeper into the mountain.
As he left, the deer king followed too, drawing curious looks from the officers.
Once Lin Jiangye was out of earshot, the officers began whispering excitedly.
“Man—first time in my life I’ve seen someone talk to animals like that!”
“Same! Hey, Chief—can you keep him? Being a consultant anywhere is being a consultant. Our town can’t afford it, sure—but we could send him up to the city bureau!”
The chief chuckled. He wanted to as well—but Shang Fuyan’s earlier look was honestly terrifying. He’d have to find a moment when that man wasn’t around, and quietly ask later.
Lin Jiangye arrived beneath the cluster of “fat jiu.” Watching those black-and-white little fluff-balls packed together, he was suddenly reminded of sesame-filled tangyuan.
So round, so soft—just begging to be bitten (no).
Several little birds watched him with bead-like eyes, then chirped brightly.
“Human! Do you have a question for jiu? If we answer one question, do we get tasty food?”
Lin Jiangye laughed softly and raised his hand, palm up. A little bird immediately hopped into his palm.
Warm—like holding a tiny hand-warmer.
In the next second, a dried insect treat appeared before the bird’s face.
“Chirp-chirp-chirp!”
“It didn’t lie! This human feeds Jiu yummy bugs!”
The bird wanted to grab the bug and fly off, but it remembered it hadn’t answered anything yet and forced itself to stop.
“Human! Ask! Jiu will answer first, then eat!”
“You can eat even without answering,” Lin Jiangye said. He hadn’t expected such discipline.
But the bird still didn’t eat. It puffed out its round chest and stared at him, waiting.
What a principled little jiu. Adorable.
“Bixi—my raven—said you saw what the two killers looked like. Tell me.”
Lin Jiangye couldn’t resist gently stroking the bird’s puffy chest. When it didn’t mind, he quietly beckoned Shang Fuyan over to touch it too.
Shang Fuyan lightly stroked it twice, eyes full of curiosity and delight. This was his first time touching a wild animal.
The little bird seemed completely unbothered by the humans touching it. It dug into its memory and said:
“Saw them, saw them! The tall one looked fierce and threw things at birds—so scary! His eyes were a weird pink color!”
Lin Jiangye’s eyes widened. “What color?”
“Pink! Pink! Same as flowers! And his hair was white! So weird, so weird!”
White hair and pink irises…
Lin Jiangye instantly relayed it to Shang Fuyan. Shang Fuyan’s brow furrowed—then he brightened.
“An albino. That makes it much easier for local police to catch him.”
“Not necessarily,” Lin Jiangye cautioned. “What if he disguises himself before leaving?”
Shang Fuyan nodded. White hair could be dyed. Pink irises could be hidden by colored contacts. Pale skin could be covered with makeup.
And the biggest problem was: nobody knew whether the two killers were still in Taibai Town.
If they’d already left, it would become a needle in a haystack.
The little bird happily took its bug treat and flew back to the branch. Immediately, another “fat jiu” landed in Lin Jiangye’s palm.
“Jiu saw too! The female carried a bag-bag. On that bag hung a weird thing—black and white, round and ugly!”
This clue was… abstract. Lin Jiangye knew it meant a backpack charm, but black-and-white and ugly…
“Panda?” Shang Fuyan suddenly said, instantly cutting through Lin Jiangye’s confusion.
He pulled up panda photos on his phone and showed the bird.
The bird shrieked in delight: “Ugly! Ugly! Ugly!”
Lin Jiangye: “…”
He felt helpless—and amused. When he asked Shang Fuyan why he’d guessed panda, Shang Fuyan answered with shameless logic:
“Aren’t birds supposed to like colorful things? A panda is only black and white. To them, that’s probably ugly.”
A great guess. Please never guess like that again.
Still, it wasn’t totally unreasonable. That little “fat jiu” might look black-and-white, but it actually had more colors in its feathers.
Maybe to birds, an animal with only black and white really did count as ugly…
Lin Jiangye fed it a bug treat and then looked up at the rest. “Anything else?”
—
While Lin Jiangye worked the “eyewitnesses,” the town station mobilized almost everyone.
Before long, the whole town learned that the missing student had been found—murdered in the undeveloped zone.
“What?! That’s eight lives!”
Instantly, the town exploded. The news spread online—and quickly warped into something ridiculous. One moment people claimed the students were eaten by the killer’s pet beasts; the next they claimed the students killed each other…
Eventually, the city bureau heard and dispatched the major-crimes team in full.
When they reached the mountain’s base, they ran into the station chief trying to calm the victims’ families.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry—we’ll catch the killer as soon as possible!”
“Don’t worry—we already have some information on the killer. They won’t escape the police!”
The major-crimes officers pushed through the crowd and showed their credentials. The moment the chief saw the city bureau team, his face visibly relaxed.
“Let’s talk back at the station,” he said. “All the bodies have already been brought down.”
He didn’t dare let the families see the horrifying state of the bodies. He planned to stall with forensic procedures—after examination and tidying the remains, the families could identify them.
Guan Huahui no longer looked arrogant. His only son was dead, and he was already sixty. Even if he had another child now, if he died one day, that child would surely be abandoned by the powerful older sisters—just like how he once abandoned his two daughters.
He didn’t dare remarry. He didn’t dare have more children. He could only cling to his money and endure the rest of his life.
As the chief passed him, he didn’t spare him even a glance. He led the major-crimes team back to the station.
But before getting into the car, he specifically told his officers:
“When Consultant Lin comes down, bring them to the station.”
In the car, the major-crimes team asked who this “Consultant Lin” even was.
“The special consultant from Yue City’s Wen’an District. He helped us find the bodies—and gave us plenty of information about the killers.”
The team was stunned.
He knew where the dead were and had information on the killer—was this “consultant” not a killer himself?
And why was someone from Yue City here at all?
The chief saw their confusion and explained everything from beginning to end—which only left them more bewildered.
“Are you—are you… out of your minds?” one detective blurted, nearly saying “gone crazy,” but quickly changed the phrasing.
The chief shook his head, gave them a meaningful look, and said slowly:
“You don’t get it. Some things are just… like that. When you see it with your own eyes, you’ll know whether I’ve lost my mind.”
The detective awkwardly rubbed his nose. The chief didn’t waste time explaining further. He wrote down the partial suspect profile Lin Jiangye had provided:
“Two killers: one male, one female. Female, about 165 cm, carrying a black backpack with a panda-head charm. Left ear has an earring. A long scar on the back of her hand. Male, about 178 cm, albino—pink irises. Recently coughing a lot. A fresh wound on his face.”
The detective taking notes felt more and more uneasy.
Wait—didn’t you only just find the bodies? You’re practically stripping the killers bare already.
“Hold on, I have a question—” the major-crimes chief cut in.
But before he could ask where the information came from, someone outside shouted excitedly:
“Chief Zhang! Consultant Lin is back!”
They all poured out of the meeting room—and saw two tall young men walk into the station.
One had a big crow on his shoulder, and in his arms he was holding—
…Wait. What exactly are you holding?
Everyone’s eyes bulged as they stared at the catlike animal in Lin Jiangye’s arms.
Someone rubbed his eyes hard, confirmed he wasn’t hallucinating, and sucked in a sharp breath.
“Lynx!!!”
Lin Jiangye’s face was stamped with pure helplessness. He hadn’t expected to get latched onto by a lynx.
Correction—it wasn’t small at all. It was a full year old. Newly pushed out by its mother to hunt on its own, it had been fed by Lin Jiangye once and immediately decided to glue itself to him, refusing to leave.
The station chief, meanwhile, didn’t look surprised at all. After all, even the deer king was willing to stand close to him—why wouldn’t other animals?
“Consultant Lin,” the chief asked eagerly, rubbing his hands like a hungry little long-tailed tit waiting to be fed, “did you bring back more information?”
Lin Jiangye’s mouth twitched. He lightly patted the lynx’s head, and to everyone’s shock, it let out a comfortable purr.
That sound made Bixi, perched on his shoulder, extremely displeased!
That spot was supposed to be his.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t beat this big cat, so he couldn’t steal Lin Jiangye’s embrace back. QAQ
“This little guy saw the two killers and memorized their scent. If you find the suspects, Chief, you can have the lynx come identify them,” Lin Jiangye said. “It’s right in the middle of its ‘super curious’ phase. It saw two people working hard at killing and didn’t even hide—just lay up in a tree and watched quietly.”
Then, after they finished and left, the lynx even followed behind them for a stretch, only turning back after the two had gone down the mountain.
It was during that tailing that it memorized the killers’ smell.
Hearing his explanation, the chief couldn’t help feeling a little helpless. This little brat was way too curious. But then again—cat family, what can you do?
“Oh, right!” Lin Jiangye suddenly added. “It also ‘measured’ the size of their shoeprints for me. Give me paper and a pen—I’ll draw it.”
The chief’s face instantly blossomed into a dazzling grin.
Shoeprints—means you can basically estimate weight!
But to the major-crimes team, everything Lin Jiangye was saying sounded bizarre, unreliable, and reeked of superstition.
And yet the local station officers trusted him completely—whatever he said, they took as truth, without the slightest doubt.
What if he gave them false information, and they couldn’t catch anyone—or worse, they arrested the wrong person?
The major-crimes team felt the whole station was acting kind of… unhinged.
And then—
“So why are you bringing a nationally protected Class II animal down the mountain?” someone demanded, face stern, pointing at the lynx in Lin Jiangye’s arms as if Lin Jiangye were a smuggler holding the lynx hostage.
Lin Jiangye didn’t bother explaining. He simply tossed the still-purring lynx into the detective’s arms.
But in the very next second, the lynx sprang right back—swift as lightning—leaping from the detective’s arms onto Lin Jiangye again.
Lin Jiangye didn’t flinch, but Bixi nearly got scared out of his feathers. He cawed and fluttered straight into Shang Fuyan’s arms.
“Don’t go~” The little lynx acted spoiled as naturally as breathing, rubbing against Lin Jiangye’s face like a clingy housecat, marking him all over. The way it “claimed” him made Bixi boil with rage.
“Get lost! That’s my human!” Bixi bared his sharp claws at the lynx.
The lynx couldn’t even be bothered to look at him. It just clung to Lin Jiangye and refused to let go. Even when Lin Jiangye spread his hands, it stubbornly stayed plastered to him.
The entire major-crimes team froze, stunned. The other officers, meanwhile, were full of envy.
A lynx! That was a lynx! They wanted a lynx to be that clingy with them too!!!
Shang Fuyan quickly held Bixi down so he wouldn’t actually lunge. The raven was bigger than a normal crow, sure—but he was absolutely not a lynx’s opponent.
Which only made Bixi feel even more wronged.
And then—
Lin Jiangye suddenly peeled the lynx off his body, took Bixi from Shang Fuyan’s arms, hugged him close, and used one hand to press down the lynx that was trying to pounce again.
“Bixi is my family. You’re not allowed to bully my family.”
No matter how the lynx struggled, it couldn’t break free from Lin Jiangye’s grip. That strength was enough to make it understand: this human was taking it seriously.
The little lynx felt a pang of envy. Its ears flattened back, and it looked at the human and the raven with big pleading eyes, letting out a small whine.
“I know I was wrong…”
Now the major-crimes team was genuinely starting to question reality.
They had never seen anything like someone disciplining a wild animal. In their understanding, animals couldn’t understand human speech—especially wild ones. If they didn’t attack humans, that was already a win.
But scenes like this did feel familiar—like someone scolding a child.
Treating a wild animal like a human kid and lecturing it… hah. If you told this story out loud, even the Forestry Bureau would probably lose its mind.
The station chief was far calmer than they were—watching like he was enjoying a show. When the lynx finally settled, the chief stepped forward and handed Lin Jiangye paper and pen.
“According to the lynx, it’s about this size. The depth… wait a second…” Lin Jiangye spoke as he worked, then even grabbed the lynx’s paw to compare.
Back then, the lynx had used its own paw like a ruler to “record” the shoeprints.
Maybe it did it just for fun—but to the police, those measurements were priceless.
Before long, using the lynx’s data, they formed a rough picture of the killers’ builds.
“Female, 165 cm, about 70 kilos. Male, 178 cm, about 68 kilos—these numbers include the weight of thick winter clothing,” the chief recorded everything carefully.
From the numbers, the male suspect seemed on the slim side. With albinism and the coughing, they strongly suspected his health wasn’t great.
The female suspect, on the other hand, was sturdier—built more solidly.
“That makes it hard to say who the mastermind really is,” Shang Fuyan said, and the whole group fell silent.
Digging a pit, hiking up the mountain, luring people down, dumping buckets of water over them again and again—aside from the third task, the other three all required real physical strength.
They’d assumed the male—fierce and aggressive—must be the ringleader, with the woman as accomplice.
But judging from these measurements… their assumption might need to be flipped.
