Chapter 52: A New Patrol in the Zoo
After calming the monkeys in the enclosure, Lin Jiangye took Hong Xingwang and climbed over that small slope.
“There’s blood residue under the victim’s fingernails. Once we take it back, we can test the DNA.” Although everyone believed the person who killed the female employee was the same killer who murdered Gu Tingxue, the court cared about evidence—without enough proof, they couldn’t convict him.
Lin Jiangye nodded in silence. There were now a handful of nuts in his palm, a gift from the Monkey King—its best batch. The purpose was simple: find the bad human who killed “sister.”
And by accepting them, Lin Jiangye was also accepting the commission.
No one expected the “treatment” he received in the monkey enclosure would flip completely. Before, he’d used freeze-dried fruit biscuits to trade with the monkeys. Now, it was the monkeys using their best food to trade with him.
He stuffed the nuts into his pocket and casually asked about the relationship between the killer and the victim.
“How did the two of them even know each other? For a staff member on leave to come back temporarily… they can’t just be acquaintances, right?” Lin Jiangye asked.
Hong Xingwang followed behind him up the slope. To the left was the tiger zone; to the right was Wolf Valley. He didn’t know which route to take first.
Lin Jiangye narrowed his eyes and headed straight toward Wolf Valley.
Along the way, he kept observing the surroundings. This area was quite remote. The killer most likely changed into staff clothing here, then blended into the crowds.
When the director finally caught up, panting, he happened to hear Hong Xingwang explaining the connection between the victim and the killer.
“The victim, Yao Li—her child is that student who was taken hostage…”
Alright. Case cracked.
That was why Yao Li rushed back even after going home—because when the killer, An Yang, took the child hostage and fled, he called her and ordered her to come to the zoo immediately. If she didn’t come, the child would die.
“So while the police were chasing him, he’d already thought of using the broken cameras in the monkey enclosure to escape you, right?” The distance from the slope to Wolf Valley wasn’t far. In under ten minutes, they reached the passage into Wolf Valley.
Through the glass wall, Lin Jiangye clearly saw several wolves lying together, huddled for warmth as they slept.
The enclosure was designed to imitate the wild. Unless the weather turned harsh, they wouldn’t bring the wolves back into the indoor shelter—they wanted the pack to keep a bit of its wildness.
He gently knocked on the glass, and soon the wolves were startled awake.
They shook their heads, still drowsy, and looked over at Lin Jiangye. At this hour, seeing humans come over was surprising enough.
But when they saw him actually waving at them, several big question marks practically popped over their heads.
What’s wrong with this human?
“Sorry to disturb you this late. I have something I’d like to ask. May I know which one of you is the Wolf King?” Since there was a pack, there had to be an alpha—but the director wasn’t sure which wolf it was.
The wolves finally crawled out of their warm nest. Perhaps they’d only just woken up—each one looked like a messy, scruffy puppy.
[Human? Are you the new security guard?]
Lin Jiangye’s hand paused slightly. He looked at the few silly-looking wolves with a helpless expression.
“Director, they’re asking if you’re the new security guard.” One sentence—and both the human and the wolf pack instantly woke up.
“Who says I’m a security guard?!”
[What? This is the director?!]
As the one who caused it all, Lin Jiangye didn’t bother explaining. Once the wolves were fully awake, he used the director’s name to ask whether they had seen a staff member pass through here yesterday morning.
“He had the scent of death and blood on him.” The killer hadn’t bled while killing, but the victim’s limbs had wounds—made when they were broken. The smell of blood would naturally cling to the killer.
There were vents above the glass wall in Wolf Valley, so scents from outside could drift in.
Other smells might not matter, but blood and death were extremely sensitive signals for any animal.
And wolves—even if kept in a zoo—would recognize that kind of smell.
Sure enough, once Lin Jiangye described it, every wolf in the pack reacted as if they remembered.
[Yes, yes. That man felt weird. He looked really nervous—kept looking around while walking.] The Wolf King slowly stepped forward and spoke to the humans.
It didn’t know what had happened outside, but from the smell on them, it was obvious something had died—something large.
“Which way did he go?” Lin Jiangye pressed. The pack quickly gave him a direction.
Just as he was about to lead everyone after it, a timid wolf asked softly:
[Uh… um… the director won’t cut our food rations, will he…?]
No way, no way. As a zoo director, surely this human wouldn’t be that petty?
Lin Jiangye’s lips twitched. He forced down his laughter, patted his chest, and promised the wolves, “Relax. He won’t. I’ll supervise him!”
The other wolves were delighted. Before long, the pack’s awoo, awoo echoed through the entire zoo.
Only the Wolf King stared at Lin Jiangye suspiciously… then stared at the director, who looked completely confused.
After the humans left, the Wolf King lowered its head and muttered gloomily:
[Why do I feel like… the director doesn’t know anything at all?]
The only one communicating was that young human. The director looked like he couldn’t understand a thing.
But the instant it turned around, the Wolf King’s fur suddenly exploded all over its body—its tail puffed out like a gray pom-pom stick.
[Wait! Something’s wrong! How could that human understand wolf speech?!]
Have humans outside mutated? Why didn’t anyone tell the wolves?!
Hearing the howls behind them, the director asked curiously, “What are the wolves yelling about in the middle of the night?”
Lin Jiangye once again showed off his shameless ability to talk nonsense. “They said: the director is indeed the director—looks totally different from a security guard.”
It was so flattering it didn’t sound like something animals would say.
But the director was still drowning in grief over his employee’s death. He had no mood to judge whether Lin Jiangye was lying.
Hong Xingwang, however, gave Lin Jiangye a long look. For some reason, he felt those howls didn’t mean that at all.
Whether they did or didn’t—following the wolves’ directions, they arrived at the zoo’s warehouse.
The moment the director saw the building, his face turned terrifyingly ugly. Lin Jiangye and Hong Xingwang watched him—he looked like a volcano about to erupt, molten anger nearly dyeing his eyes red.
“This… is the warehouse where the cafeteria stores ingredients!” What was the killer trying to do here?
The director feared that if An Yang truly went insane, he might tamper with the food. If that happened… the zoo wouldn’t just lose one employee. It would be far worse.
“It shouldn’t—” Hong Xingwang started to comfort him, but when he thought of the conditions of Gu Tingxue and Yao Li’s bodies, his expression hesitated for a split second.
“It shouldn’t,” Lin Jiangye said more firmly than Hong Xingwang, “unless he’s truly gone mad.”
An Yang’s cruelty toward Gu Tingxue was likely because the pregnancy had triggered him. As for Yao Li, at least that horrific state was caused after death—meant to prevent anyone from noticing she’d returned, so he wouldn’t be implicated.
If An Yang were truly a madman, he could’ve made everything explode from the beginning—why hide inside a zoo?
“But later, Director—you don’t go over there.” Lin Jiangye stopped him. If An Yang really was inside, a normal person like the director would be forced to face his threat.
The director froze, then nodded slowly.
Next, Lin Jiangye handed over his cat and both crows to the director. “The warehouse isn’t big. They won’t be convenient to take in. Director, help me watch them—when I’m done, I’ll come back for them.”
The director lowered his head and met three pairs of bright, shining eyes. He sniffed, then nodded again without a word.
Hong Xingwang also quietly led his men to surround the warehouse. He had someone pull nearby surveillance footage—and sure enough, it showed a person in staff uniform entering.
And the timestamp was less than an hour after An Yang entered the monkey enclosure.
“It’s him. No doubt!”
From the footage, he even came out once in the middle—but for some reason, he went back in and hid again.
“Because he saw us?” Hong Xingwang’s gaze at the warehouse looked like a beast pack encircling prey—excited, yet cautious.
Their arrival time at the zoo wasn’t much later than the killer’s. That made it hard for him to shake them off completely.
Once they confirmed the killer was inside the zoo, they coordinated with local police to put checks at every exit.
An Yang could change uniforms, but his face didn’t change. If he slipped out once, he would definitely have seen the police outside.
He didn’t dare gamble. If he lost, he’d never escape.
“So instead of risking a run outside, he hid. With a staff uniform, he can wait until the zoo opens tomorrow, then use ‘staff identity’ to find a more hidden exit.” Hong Xingwang let out a cold laugh. A good plan—except he wasn’t going to give the killer a second chance to run.
Once everyone was in position, Hong Xingwang handed Lin Jiangye a pair of silver handcuffs. “If you find him, use this to restrain him.”
Looking at Lin Jiangye’s tall, lean frame, he worried Lin might lose out in a direct fight.
But Lin Jiangye refused the kindness. “I can fight a Siberian tiger. A normal man is nothing.”
“Huh? What?” Hong Xingwang hadn’t seen the video of Lin Jiangye fighting a subadult Siberian tiger, so he had no basic concept of Lin’s strength.
Lin Jiangye didn’t explain much. He just loosened up his wrists and ankles on the spot.
When Hong Xingwang heard the crack-crack of joints, he finally got a faint sense of something.
In the pre-dawn hours, the group quietly opened the warehouse door and slipped inside with light steps.
Before entering, Lin Jiangye had studied the warehouse floor plan. If someone wanted to hide from cameras yet still steal food to fill their stomach, there were three possible spots.
Lin took one. Hong Xingwang’s team took the other two.
Now it was a matter of who would be lucky enough to “open the blind box.”
Unfortunately, the goddess of luck didn’t smile on Lin Jiangye tonight. The spot he searched was empty—meaning the killer chose another location.
“Tsk.” What a pity.
But just as Lin Jiangye turned to leave, his ear twitched. A faint rustling sound was approaching from not far away.
Lin Jiangye lifted his brows. He grabbed both sides of the shelving and flipped up onto it—light and nimble, like a black cat.
Soon, he saw a sneaky figure creeping over.
The person seemed to sense there were more people inside. Every step was extremely cautious. He even crouched low, peering through gaps under the shelves to probe the area.
Unfortunately for him, he only watched the ground—completely forgetting to check above.
When he confirmed there was no one near the shelf ahead and prepared to move to the next spot, a cold, mocking voice fell from overhead.
“Finding you was really a pain.”
An Yang’s head went boom—his mind nearly exploded. Before he could react, his body surged forward by instinct. But the first step he took was met with a brutal pain in his back—so intense it felt like his waist was about to be cut in half.
“Y—You…” He twisted his head, but before he could even see who struck him, a single slap sent him flying.
Yes. Just one slap.
The others rushing over happened to witness the scene: with only one slap, Lin Jiangye had knocked the killer into the wall and straight into unconsciousness. The kitchen knife in the killer’s hand was utterly useless.
“Oh my…” Lin Jiangye sighed in exaggerated surprise. “Looks like I used a tiny bit too much strength…”
When Hong Xingwang arrived, he saw officers dragging the killer over like a dead fish. The man still wasn’t awake, and a clear slap mark was stamped across his face.
“This is… what happened?” Why is he out cold? Did you guys hit him?
Hong Xingwang’s subordinate hurried over and described everything he’d seen in detail.
But Hong Xingwang still found it hard to believe. “One slap knocked him out? Do you think this is a movie? One Punch Man?”
Later, after watching the body-cam footage, Hong Xingwang had no choice but to admit Lin Jiangye possessed terrifying strength.
With the killer captured, the Major Crimes detectives of Gao City finally set down the boulder in their hearts.
After letting the killer escape once, they’d been scolded half to death by the public. If he truly got away again, none of them would have the face to go back.
As they took An Yang away, Lin Jiangye stopped Hong Xingwang and asked that when they wrote the closing report later, they tell him the killer’s motive.
“We’ve always suspected pregnancy was part of the motive, but from what we’ve seen, it’s probably not that simple. If he says anything, tell me, alright?” If it were anyone else, Hong Xingwang wouldn’t bother. But Lin Jiangye was half “one of them,” and motive wasn’t a top secret. Telling him was fine.
After stuffing the killer into the car, Hong Xingwang looked at Lin Jiangye, who still hadn’t moved, and asked blankly, “Aren’t you going back?”
The young man grinned—teeth bared in a bright, dazzling smile. “No. I’m planning to hang around here for a few days!”
The director didn’t plan to close the zoo. Tickets had already been sold, and when the employee died, no one nearby noticed. They intended to handle it quietly.
However, they wouldn’t continue using the staff break room where a death occurred. They moved everything inside to another empty room.
“This time, we’re truly grateful… This is a small token from the park. Please accept it.”
The director prepared an annual pass and some zoo souvenirs for Lin Jiangye, but Lin refused them.
“Well, it’s like this—I’m thinking of opening a wildlife park in Yue City too. Right now I’ve already…” Lin Jiangye had already secured the land in the back mountain area. It wasn’t cheap—still the biggest sum he’d spent so far.
As for the remaining funds: part would go to later construction and importing animals; part was kept in reserve; and the last part, under Shang Fuyan’s introduction, had been invested in several companies—so in two or three years, he could simply sit and wait for dividends.
Everything was orderly—except the bank manager, who cried very loudly.
The director’s heart tightened. At first he resisted—because that meant Lin Jiangye would become his competitor.
And most likely, the strongest competitor.
But thinking carefully, he realized he couldn’t stop Lin Jiangye from opening a zoo. The best solution was only to build a good relationship.
Someone who could understand animal speech—if anything went wrong in his zoo, he’d still need to invite this young man over.
If he didn’t get along now, was he going to beg later and pay a fortune to hire him?
“How about this—I’ll give you a work badge. Just treat it as helping me inspect each area for a while.” The more the director thought about it, the more brilliant it felt. Normally he had too many things to handle and couldn’t patrol the entire zoo. If something went wrong, unless it blew up into a big incident, it was hard for him to discover it.
But now it was different. With Lin Jiangye here, no problem could hide from the animals’ eyes. Lin just needed to chat with the little ones in each area and he could pinpoint the key issue easily.
Wasn’t that basically a free professional inspector patrolling his zoo?
Two birds with one stone!
The director didn’t hide his thinking at all—he told Lin Jiangye directly. “How about it? You stay in the zoo for a while. I’ll cover all your food and lodging!”
There were dorms inside the park. He’d give Lin Jiangye a single-room unit—convenient for settling the three little ones he brought.
As for meals, he could eat like staff—at the cafeteria.
Lin Jiangye nodded, excitement shining in his eyes. With the director’s approval, it meant he could wander around the grounds as he pleased—and even enter places visitors weren’t allowed.
Changhe Wildlife Park had been operating for ten years. It was a zoo with a mature management system, and its equipment, layouts, workflows, staffing, and scheduling were all things he needed to observe and learn from.
The two of them tacitly avoided talking about money. What each could gain from the other was far more valuable than cash.
They moved quickly. That very night, the director arranged new credentials and living quarters for him. Lin Jiangye rested with the three little ones for only a short while. Once the zoo reopened, he took his documents and the relevant inspection forms and headed into the park.
First, he went to the monkey enclosure and informed the Monkey King. After learning that the bad human had been caught, the monkeys finally calmed down a little.
Then he walked straight toward the tiger enclosure behind the monkey area.
Changhe Zoo’s tiger zone housed three kinds of tigers: two Siberian tigers, three Bengal tigers, and five South China tigers.
When Lin Jiangye was still a hundred meters from the outer perimeter, waves of tiger roars were already echoing.
Using his credentials, he entered the staff corridor inside the tiger zone and observed the two male Siberian tigers from close range.
The tiger-zone staff watched him curiously. When they came on shift that morning, they’d received a notice: for the next few days, a professional inspector would be checking on the animals, and whatever requirements he raised, they should accommodate as much as possible.
They just hadn’t expected this “professional” to be so young.
Even more importantly, this professional had brought a raven with him.
And the raven wasn’t afraid of tigers at all.
[Not as loud as the Mountain God.] After having close contact with the tigress before, the raven had become largely indifferent to most predators.
Now, even facing two Siberian tigers, it felt nothing—perching on Lin Jiangye’s shoulder and openly talking smack about the two “idiot tigers.”
Why call them idiot tigers?
Don’t be fooled by how loudly they were roaring. In truth, they were roaring because they wanted meat—but the staff had already fed them earlier. They were just being greedy, craving more.
Tourmaline’s mocking wasn’t subtle at all, and it quickly drew the attention of the two Siberian tigers.
They jumped down from the rock mound and walked over step by step, stopping in front of Lin Jiangye and meeting his gaze through two layers of iron fencing.
[Stupid bird! What are you saying?!]
The moment Tourmaline heard the tiger call it a stupid bird, it bristled.
[Who are you calling stupid bird?! You two idiots!]
“ROAR!” The Siberian tiger was clearly unhappy with being addressed like that and let out a fierce, threatening roar.
But it never expected that, faced with its roar, the human and the bird wouldn’t be scared at all. Instead, they tilted their heads and smiled at it—like they were watching a joke.
That infuriated both tigers. They slammed themselves against the fencing and pounced at it.
The staff nearby—and the visitors at the edge—let out startled cries. Even with iron fencing between them, a lunging tiger was still terrifying.
But to everyone’s shock, the human and the raven showed no change in expression whatsoever, even under the roaring fury of two predators.
Were they really not afraid?
Tourmaline certainly wasn’t. Not only was it unafraid—it flew up to the highest part of the fence and screamed “idiot tiger” even louder, loud enough that the South China tigers in the next enclosure could hear.
“ROAR ROAR ROAR!”
“CAW CAW CAW!”
The people around couldn’t understand what the two tigers and the raven were saying, but from the shouting back and forth, they could more or less guess the big raven was mocking the Siberian tigers below.
Meanwhile, on a tree in the neighboring area, a crow and a tabby cat lay limply on a branch.
[Damn it, Tourmaline got there first again! If we’d gone to Taibai Mountain too, we’d be this bold now.] Tourmaline said it was because it met the Mountain God “mom” there that it became so fearless.
The Tibetan Mastiff buried its face in its paws, regretting it just as much.
After Tourmaline let out its taunting laugh, Lin Jiangye gave it an order. “Get down. Stop laughing. If you really start a scene, you’ll alert the director.”
Tourmaline snickered and obediently returned to Lin Jiangye’s shoulder.
Seeing the “stupid bird” listen so obediently to a human, one Siberian tiger was about to sneer—when it saw Lin Jiangye pull out a form and ask them, quite seriously:
“Have you felt unwell lately? How’s your food? Anything that needs improvement? Are any staff here slacking off or cutting corners?”
The Siberian tiger’s mouth, which had been open mid-roar, slowly closed. It tilted its head and stared at the human in confusion.
Tourmaline was right—these two really were dumb.
While the two Siberian tigers were still trying to figure out why this human was asking so many questions, another tiger’s voice came from behind:
[Hey, human—can you understand what we’re saying?]
Lin Jiangye turned and saw a white Bengal tiger speaking to him.
He nodded and asked it the same set of questions. “I’m doing patrol and inspection on behalf of the director. If you have any issues, you can tell me.”
The staff watching nearby were dumbstruck. They stared at him “talking” with the tigers, feeling like their brains couldn’t quite process what they were seeing.
After a long moment, someone finally came back to themselves. “Wait… I think I remember who he is…”
At that moment, Lin Jiangye was writing down all the white tiger’s complaints—like how it was fed chicken every day and was getting irritable, and whether they could switch to lamb once in a while.
Or how the humans outside were far too noisy—especially the little kids. Their screaming was giving it a headache. If it roared once, they cried even louder, which was even more troublesome.
[And another thing! Tell those humans! Tiger does NOT eat egg-yolk pies! Don’t think tiger doesn’t know about that shameless wolf! Tiger won’t eat it! Do you hear me?! Tell them to stop throwing them in!]
The more it spoke, the more agitated the white tiger became. Its roaring made Lin Jiangye’s head buzz.
“Alright, alright, I hear you—stop yelling, sir. My ears are going to go deaf!” As he spoke, Lin Jiangye casually tossed a piece of freeze-dried snack over. It went through the two layers of fencing and landed precisely in the white tiger’s mouth.
The white tiger swallowed on reflex.
Then human and tiger stared at each other for a moment. After a beat, the white tiger muttered:
[Didn’t taste what it was… give me another one.]
Lin Jiangye was so annoyed he almost laughed. He was about to toss another piece when he saw someone above the Bengal tiger enclosure actually throw an egg-yolk pie inside.
Still in its packaging.
What—did they expect the tiger to tear open a plastic wrapper?
Lin Jiangye couldn’t help laughing, while the staff in charge of the tiger zone all frowned.
“What is wrong with them? Are they sick—feeding egg-yolk pies to tigers?!”
Now they had a problem. To prevent a tiger from actually eating that thing, they first had to lure the adult tigers away, then go in and pick up the trash.
And that kind of operation took time.
Just as they were frowning and preparing to lure the tigers away, Lin Jiangye came over and offered to help.
“Let me go in.”
“What?”
Everyone thought they must have misheard.
But Lin Jiangye put on a pair of rain boots, disinfected himself, and opened the iron gate, preparing to walk in.
“Wait! It’s dangerous in there!” The staff nearly panicked.
But the next second, they saw the white tiger trot right up to Lin Jiangye and rub against him on its own, affectionate as a dog.
And the young man who had just walked in actually dared to reach out and pat the white tiger on the head.
“Payment first. Thanks, Tiger King, for being my bodyguard.” The reason Lin Jiangye dared to go in alone was because he had already made a deal with this white tiger. And the other two Bengal tigers were already full, so their aggression was low.
At the very least, it was far lower than that injured subadult Siberian tiger from before.
So even though the other two tigers noticed someone enter, they didn’t even bother to get up and check.
And this time, the white tiger finally tasted the freeze-dried snack properly.
Crunch! Crispy! Delicious! Only—too small!
