Chapter 51: The Monkey Troop’s Fury
Changhe Wildlife Park—despite having “river” in its name—was actually built up in the mountains, with the nearest river still several kilometers away.
This time, when Lin Jiangye headed over, he only brought three little ones with him—Tibetan Mastiff, Opal, and Tourmaline.
The German Shepherd refused to go no matter what, because his wife was truly about to give birth, and he didn’t want to leave her side. The Caucasian Shepherd had deep feelings for the Border Collie, and at such a critical moment, it naturally didn’t want to leave either.
As for Diamond, he’d been busy lately looking after the newborn pups in the family and had no time to mind Opal at all. Perfect timing—since Lin Jiangye was going out, Diamond simply tossed Opal to him to watch.
They drove the several hundred kilometers there. By the time Lin Jiangye arrived at the zoo, it was already dark—just right for him and the police to search for the murderer hiding inside.
When Hong Xingwang saw Lin Jiangye had finally made it, his eyes lit up at once. “Mr. Lin!!!”
Lin Jiangye’s steps stalled; instinctively he wanted to leave. But before he could even back away, Hong Xingwang grabbed his arm and clung to it. “Please! I’m begging you! The zoo director just won’t admit there’s a killer hiding in the park. The cameras only caught a silhouette—we can’t find that person at all!”
Standing with the police were a man and a woman—the zoo’s director and deputy director.
Hearing Hong Xingwang’s words, the bespectacled man—the director—said impatiently, “Our surveillance never captured a clear figure. The only time you can see a face is when he entered the zoo, but no one can be sure he’s still inside!”
The more he spoke, the angrier he got. In his eyes, these cops were out of their minds—demanding they shut down the entire zoo. Did they have any idea how much money the zoo would lose in a single day?
Oh—they truly didn’t.
The deputy director rubbed her nose awkwardly. She also felt closing the whole zoo wasn’t a good idea, but she didn’t doubt the police’s suspicion either.
Lin Jiangye pulled his arm free, opened the car compartment, and let his babies out.
Two crows and a cat darted up with practiced ease and clambered onto the young man. The sight made the deputy director’s eyes shine, while the director’s brows knitted tightly.
They’d learned earlier that afternoon that the police had invited a “special consultant” to help.
At first they hadn’t taken it seriously. But now that they saw it was Lin Jiangye, their moods couldn’t have been more different.
They’d heard plenty of rumors about him—yet their attitudes were completely opposite: the deputy director believed them; the director leaned toward thinking the young man was just hyping himself up.
Understanding animal speech? Did he think this was some kind of novel?
When the deputy director saw the two glossy, well-kept crows, her eyes curved into a smile.
To raise ravens this well—and have them so affectionate toward people—was proof enough of the young man’s care. Even if he couldn’t truly understand animal speech, he could absolutely sense what an animal was trying to convey through its emotions.
She firmly believed animals had spirit—and only someone with spirit, too, could truly understand what they meant.
“Can you tell me exactly what’s going on?” he asked. After receiving the call for help, he’d immediately brought the little ones and rushed out—he hadn’t even had time to look through the messages Hong Xingwang sent him on the way.
Hong Xingwang gave an awkward laugh and showed him the surveillance footage they’d pulled. On screen was a man wearing a mask and hat, his face covered tightly. If not for the fact that he wore the same clothes as the murderer during the escape, Hong Xingwang and the others would’ve had trouble noticing him at all.
But the footage stopped there. After entering the zoo, the man blended into the crowd and vanished.
“The last time we saw him, he was about to go into the monkey enclosure.” And then… nothing. The cameras inside the enclosure had been broken by the monkeys a few days earlier, so they couldn’t see what happened inside at all.
There were two exits from the monkey area, but neither exit’s camera showed him coming out. They’d suspected the murderer might have changed clothes.
That was also why the director felt the murderer had already left the zoo—if he changed clothes and left, he was probably already out of the city by now.
But Hong Xingwang had a different view. “But we didn’t find that set of clothes in any trash can in the park—how do you explain that? If he changed clothes, why didn’t he throw them away? Don’t tell me he’s still wearing them inside?
“Besides, it’s like five or six degrees here. When he left, he was still wearing a down jacket. Even if he changed clothes, he wouldn’t be able to ditch the down jacket, right?
“Maybe he’s still hiding in the zoo, waiting until we all think he’s left the city—then he can slip away from the police chase.”
Just thinking about “slipping away” made Hong Xingwang’s chest ache with anger.
Lin Jiangye listened as they talked while walking into the wildlife park. “Whether he’s still here or not—why not just ask the monkeys? They should all be in the indoor shelters right now, yeah?”
The director was about to say something, but the deputy director squeezed past him and spoke first. “Not necessarily. It’s not that cold right now. Some monkeys don’t want to go back to the indoor shelter, so they choose to sleep outside.”
They’d tried to stuff them all back into the shelters before, but a few stubborn ones refused to sleep—and ended up making themselves sick from staying out.
Lin Jiangye’s mouth twitched slightly. The deputy director’s choice of words really wasn’t wrong—those ones truly were stubborn to the bone.
When the group arrived at the monkey enclosure and saw several monkeys sprawled on rocks and grass, everyone’s expressions turned a little… complicated.
“Wait—what is that one doing?” Someone pointed at the pond below and let out a startled cry.
They followed his finger—and when they saw a monkey lying on a bamboo raft, drifting along with the water, everyone fell silent.
Lin Jiangye chuckled softly. “Now that’s a monkey who really knows how to live.”
The moment he finished speaking, the monkey on the raft snapped its eyes open. When it saw a row of human figures lined up by the fence, its body stiffened instantly.
The next second, a miserable chorus of shrill squeaks exploded through the enclosure:
[Where did so many humans come from?!]
“Pfft—” Lin Jiangye laughed so hard his stomach nearly hurt. What kind of prideful monkey was this?!
Already startled, the monkey heard his laughter and immediately got so furious it began chattering curses.
But it seemed to forget it was still lying on a raft. The moment it sprang up, the raft lost balance—plop!—and it dropped straight into the pond.
“Oh my god!” The deputy director turned pale. She hurriedly led people to unlock the gate and go in to fish the monkey out.
At this temperature, falling into water—if you didn’t dry it off quickly, it would get sick.
Lin Jiangye followed in behind her. Once the monkey swam back to shore and lifted its head, it saw the human who’d been laughing his head off standing right in front of it.
That human even bent over, grinning, and waved at it—so irritating it was unbearable!
[Monkey hates you!]
Lin Jiangye pressed his lips together, forcing himself not to laugh again. After the deputy director led it away, he turned and looked at the other monkeys lying outside.
Before coming over, he’d asked the deputy director whether feeding was allowed. She took a bite of the homemade little “biscuit” in his hand, nodded in silence—and then ate the whole piece.
The “biscuit” he’d prepared wasn’t really a biscuit. More accurately, it was freeze-dried fruit—made from assorted fruits, freeze-dried, then pressed flat into a biscuit-like shape.
Lin Jiangye had tasted it himself. Sweet and crispy, pretty good—even humans could eat it.
He walked to about a meter away from the monkeys, crouched down, took out the prepared biscuits, and waved them in front of them.
Soon, a fresh fruity fragrance caught every monkey’s attention.
When they gathered around, Lin Jiangye didn’t panic at all—he even asked casually, “Want some?”
But the instant he said it, the monkeys lunged at him.
Up on the fence, Hong Xingwang’s heart clenched. The monkeys in this enclosure weren’t gentle golden snub-nosed monkeys—these macaques were mischievous and fierce. Could Mr. Lin handle—
Before he could finish the thought, the young man below twisted his body lightly and dodged one monkey’s pounce.
Then he grabbed another monkey by the paw, forcibly spun it around several times, and only let go when it was dizzy and reeling.
One monkey scrambled up to a higher rock, trying to use the height to jump onto him. But as if the human had eyes in the back of his head, he stepped back at the exact moment it leapt—then, just as it was about to smack into the ground, he pinched the monkey by the neck and set it down steadily.
Everyone on the fence watched as Lin Jiangye moved with effortless agility, teasing the monkeys below until they were so exhausted they couldn’t even muster strength. Only then did he stop. And through it all, not a single monkey had touched even the hem of his clothes.
In the end, the young man sat atop the rock mound, propping his chin with one hand, looking down at the worn-out monkeys sprawled below. With a light laugh, he asked, “Still want to try again?”
Hong Xingwang and the others’ mouths twitched hard. For the first time, they truly felt Lin Jiangye was infuriating.
If they found him infuriating, then the monkeys… didn’t even need to be mentioned.
Unfortunately, the monkeys had no strength left. They could only lie there and screech in chaotic protest. Hearing those cries, the soaked macaque—its fur freshly dried by the deputy director—quietly turned around and hugged her.
It suddenly felt like sleeping indoors was actually pretty nice…
While they were still cursing and yapping, Lin Jiangye simply hopped down in front of them and stuffed half a fruit biscuit into each of the four macaques’ mouths.
The fragrant, crisp sweetness instantly stuffed their mouths. The monkeys stopped cursing and started chewing, holding the biscuits in both hands—crunch, crunch.
The soaked macaque, which had been about to go back, immediately let go of the deputy director and trotted over toward Lin Jiangye.
[Monkey wants some too!]
This macaque had watched the entire process of Lin Jiangye “washing” his own kind’s face. Now it didn’t dare cause trouble at all. It squatted obediently in front of him, looking up pitifully, begging for food.
“Not bad. Very good.” Lin Jiangye gave it half a biscuit too—then, under the intense gaze of the many macaques, he popped the other half into his own mouth.
The monkeys: …
Everyone else: …
Why did this guy suddenly feel… not that reliable?
After chewing and swallowing his half, Lin Jiangye immediately pulled out another pack. Looking at the monkeys’ sparkling eyes, he smiled and said, “I have a tiny little question. Whoever can answer it gets the biscuit—a whole one, okay?”
The deputy director watched as the macaques sat obediently in a neat row before the young man. With that coaxing tone of his, she was instantly reminded of her own daughter in kindergarten—when the teacher would call on her in class.
That teacher used the exact same kind of voice to lure the kids into answering questions enthusiastically—only the “reward” wasn’t a biscuit, but a little red sticker.
Sure enough, the macaques immediately turned into kindergarten children, all eager to “raise their hands” to answer.
Huh? Wait a second—who taught them to raise their hands before answering?!
“First question: yesterday morning, did you see a male human wearing a mask and a hat?” As he spoke, Lin Jiangye showed them the surveillance image of the suspect.
But the man’s outfit was far too common, and with so many people coming and going in the monkey enclosure, no one had paid attention to him.
The macaques scrutinized the image for a long time. When they realized they still couldn’t identify him, they all gave him resentful, wronged looks.
Human—are you picking a question this hard on purpose because you don’t actually want to give us biscuits?
Lin Jiangye rubbed his nose, put the photo away, and changed the question. “Then did any human trespass into your territory yesterday, or show up somewhere the human cameras couldn’t capture?”
The director had said earlier that the cameras inside the monkey enclosure had been broken by the monkeys. That proved they actually recognized what surveillance cameras were.
Now the suspect had vanished inside the enclosure. Either he disappeared somewhere beyond the cameras’ view, or he knew the enclosure cameras were broken and hadn’t yet been replaced.
The former meant he was very familiar with the zoo. The latter meant he had some staff contact inside the zoo.
According to the police file, the first point was already confirmed: every winter and summer vacation, the suspect brought his child here. He even had an annual pass. Familiarity was normal.
As for the second point, it was still under investigation.
For the sake of one biscuit, the macaques plunged back into their memories again.
Seeing how distressed they looked, Lin Jiangye turned to the deputy director. “Can you let me go ask the ones in the indoor shelter?”
Maybe the monkeys sleeping inside had seen the suspect.
But the moment he finished speaking, a whole bunch of monkeys slapped hands over his mouth.
Enough—stop talking! If the monkeys inside found out they’d been sneaking delicious biscuits, tomorrow the Monkey King would smash their heads in!
One monkey clutched its head in anguish and let out a rapid series of squeaks:
[Monkey… thinks it remembers!]
It hopped over to Lin Jiangye, grabbed the hem of his clothes, and pointed toward a corner of the enclosure.
[Yesterday a human climbed up from here!]
The direction it indicated was a small slope at the side-back of the enclosure. From where Lin Jiangye stood, he couldn’t see any path leading up.
But after the monkey dragged him to the highest point of the rock hill, he spotted a narrow hidden trail tucked inside.
It was a passage only staff could use.
And now the question was: how did the suspect open the keypad lock and enter a staff-only passage? Even if an employee had told him the monkey enclosure cameras were broken, that didn’t mean they would bring an outsider into a staff passage.
If anyone found out, there would definitely be fines.
So the person who led the suspect in—did they do it willingly… or were they “made willing”?
Seeing Lin Jiangye standing above them with a heavy, grim silence on his face, the deputy director’s heart sank. A cold chill surged up her spine. “What is it? What happened?”
Lin Jiangye waved her over and gestured toward the hidden path. “Looks like we need to check the monkey-enclosure staff.”
Both of the police’s earlier guesses had been right. The suspect was familiar with the terrain—and he also knew staff working in the monkey enclosure. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have just happened to find this passage so quickly right when the cameras were down, then use it to reach the slope and leave the enclosure.
The deputy director’s face turned frighteningly dark. Lin Jiangye quietly led the monkey back down the rock hill and handed over the promised fruit biscuit.
“And after that? Did you see him again?” This time, all the monkeys shook their heads in unison.
Alright then—at least they’d found the route where the suspect vanished.
After saying goodbye to the monkeys, the group filed into the staff passage. Just as they were about to cross the small slope beside it and continue searching for traces of the suspect, Lin Jiangye suddenly stopped.
“Wait…” He inhaled sharply, sniffing the air. The raven on his shoulder and Opal shot up in an instant and flew straight into the staff break area.
[It smells like death!]
Lin Jiangye rushed in behind them. Inside a small break room, the raven was repeatedly pecking at a locker, while Opal was clawing at the old lock outside it.
[Someone… someone’s inside!]
The young man’s heart sank again. The locker wasn’t large—less than a meter in length, width, and height. If there really was a person inside…
He glanced at the battered old lock and grabbed it with one hand. With a hard yank, he tore it off—easy as pulling a weed.
Hong Xingwang, who had just entered, fell into stunned silence.
Not only him—Opal went silent too. Just now it had used both claws and teeth and still couldn’t damage the lock in the slightest.
In the next second, everyone who reached the break room froze—
Inside the locker Lin Jiangye had pulled open, a woman’s body was curled up—folded into the cramped space.
“AHHHHHH!” The deputy director was closest to Lin Jiangye, so she was the first to see it head-on—and the clearest.
Her scream shattered the monkey enclosure’s quiet. The monkeys, who had still been savoring the biscuit flavor in their mouths, immediately saw the humans carrying a corpse out.
They scrambled to the highest point. And there—clear as day—they saw the face of the body.
One monkey instantly darted this way:
[Sister!]
Lin Jiangye had just turned around when he saw it throwing itself against the protective net, shrieking.
[Sister, what happened?! Sister! Sister, sister!]
Lin Jiangye paused, then asked the director softly, “Director—was she the one who took care of the baby monkeys?”
The director’s face was deathly pale. He hadn’t expected that one of his employees was already dead—and in such a horrific way.
And the most terrifying part was: if not for Lin Jiangye, they might never have known someone had died here.
He wiped cold sweat off his forehead, but the more he wiped, the more there seemed to be. Seeing his state, Lin Jiangye could only guide him to the side and sit him down first.
After a long while, the monkeys’ frantic squeals gradually turned into crying. When the director finally came back to himself and looked up, he saw Lin Jiangye had returned to the enclosure—holding a crying macaque in his arms, gently comforting it.
[Sister… is gone!]
Lin Jiangye felt a tight ache in his chest too. From the monkeys’ account, he learned the deceased employee had worked here for many years. Her job was to care for macaque infants.
Several generations of macaques had been raised by her. That was why this one called her “sister.”
Lin Jiangye carefully recalled the state of the body, then asked the monkeys, “Did you hear any cries for help? When she was killed—did you see anything?”
But the monkeys said they hadn’t heard anything. They even said today wasn’t a day when “sister” was supposed to come.
“She wasn’t supposed to come today—then what did she tell you?”
Seeing something happen to the human they knew, the other monkeys had no mood for biscuits anymore. One after another, they relayed what “sister” had told them over the past two days, hoping this human could find the bad person who killed her.
[Sister said she was taking annual leave. She planned to go home and sleep like crazy. And when she came back, she’d bring us tasty things!]
They’d been looking forward to what she would bring. Now… they would rather she had never left.
The commotion here was too loud. The monkeys in the nearby indoor shelter were startled awake, shrieking and asking what was happening outside.
Lin Jiangye glanced back and decided he had to go into the indoor shelter and ask around.
These few hadn’t seen when the victim returned, and they also hadn’t seen when the suspect slipped into the staff passage. He needed to find “eyewitness monkeys.”
That killer was even more brutal than they had imagined.
He was about to go ask the director for permission—only to see the director walk over on his own.
“Where do you want to go… I’ll go with you.”
He had calmed down, but he also looked like he might shatter at any second. Still, at this point, he no longer doubted Lin Jiangye and the police’s theory. He obediently led them wherever they wanted to go.
Lin Jiangye simply looked at him quietly, then headed into the indoor shelter.
The monkeys sleeping inside saw two humans arrive and all pressed up against the glass door, peering with curiosity.
Lin Jiangye scanned the crowd, found the troop leader, and lured it over with a fruit biscuit. Then he told it directly the news: “sister” had been killed.
The Monkey King froze for a split second—then erupted in a terrifying roar. The noisy troop fell instantly silent; several baby monkeys were so frightened they hurried back into their mothers’ arms.
[Who?! Who did it?!]
The Monkey King’s fury exceeded Lin Jiangye’s expectations. But it also proved how close the victim had been with the monkeys while she was alive.
“We found that a killer entered the monkey enclosure yesterday morning. According to what the other monkeys told me, he left through the staff passage. Right now we don’t know why he killed your sister. I need to find monkeys who saw sister or the killer yesterday—eyewitness monkeys.”
Once it became about themselves, whether human or animal, their speed and efficiency became terrifying. They didn’t even need biscuits anymore.
Very quickly, Lin Jiangye found three eyewitness monkeys.
The first had seen the victim return. She even patted its head and told it not to make a sound—saying she’d come back secretly and would leave after grabbing something.
It also said that when sister returned, she looked tense… and angry.
“Tense… and angry?” Thinking of how the killer had taken a hostage when leaving the school, Lin Jiangye suspected the victim had also been coerced—forced to open the staff passage.
The second monkey had seen the killer standing in a corner. At the time, it was peak visiting hours; almost all staff were outside busy.
[He stared in that direction for a long time.]
The direction it pointed to was exactly where the first monkey had met sister.
That meant the killer had been not far behind the victim back then, watching her every move—further confirming Lin Jiangye’s suspicion.
The last monkey had witnessed the killer grabbing the victim and dragging her into the break room.
At the time, it had assumed both of them were employees, so it hadn’t paid attention.
After that, it saw the male carrying a bag as he left. In just a couple of moves, he climbed up the small slope—and then disappeared.
“What kind of bag?” Lin Jiangye pressed.
Very quickly, he learned it was a standard staff duffel—big enough to hold two thick sets of clothes.
The monkey said the duffel looked slightly bulged, meaning something was stuffed inside.
Lin Jiangye suspected it was a uniform. A while later, after checking, the director reported with a pale face, “One set of staff clothes is missing.”
Hong Xingwang, Lin Jiangye, and the others all shut their eyes and took a deep breath.
No wonder the exit cameras didn’t catch the killer—by then, he’d already become “a zoo staff member.” Who would be on guard against that?
Just as Lin Jiangye was preparing to leave the monkey enclosure and continue the pursuit, the last little macaque hugged his arm.
[If… if monkey had found other humans to help earlier, would sister not have died?]
The juvenile monkey was tasting the grief of death for the first time.
Lin Jiangye held it and patted it gently. “It’s not your fault. It’s the bad human’s fault. If the bad human hadn’t appeared, your sister wouldn’t have died. This has nothing to do with you.”
Even if the little monkey had sensed something wrong and warned other staff, that didn’t mean anyone would go check the break room. And even if someone did—maybe the number of deaths would’ve become more than one.
No matter what the outcome, it had nothing to do with a monkey.
“You’ve already been amazing. You’re helping your sister find the killer’s trail. If your sister knew, she would definitely be proud.”
A human she knew had been killed—yet the macaque babies she’d raised were grieving because they couldn’t save her.
As a caretaker, she wouldn’t be angry with them at all.
On the contrary—she would only feel happy, and proud.
