Chapter 323 Killing Matt Bird

Qi Xiao narrowed his eyes upon hearing this, his sharp gaze piercing through the twilight.

Chen Su chuckled, his bony fingers tightening on the steering wheel. Pale blue veins were faintly visible on the cold white back of his hand. "I feel like we're not far from the suspect."

The navigation sign "Jinsha Resort 2km" stood out against the night sky. Xu Ying tilted her head, a look of confusion in her eyes: "Could it be that the birdwatcher is staying at the scenic resort?"

Chen Su raised the corner of his lips slightly: "It's very likely."

He said firmly, "There aren't many places to stay and eat in the desert."

Xu Ying was no stranger to the Golden Sands Resort. The last time she rescued an Afghan hound that suddenly went crazy, there was a huge commotion and many onlookers. In the end, it was discovered that the nanny who was surrounded by the dogs had swapped the children.

When the eldest gerbil heard the word "resort," his eyes lit up: "This place is great! I have so many family members and close relatives here!"

Xu Ying's eyes flashed with a sharpness: "Let's go to the resort to take a look."

As the sun sets, the resort gradually becomes bustling with tourists strolling through the streets in groups of two or three, enjoying the cool evening air.

Xu Ying squatted down and gestured to the gerbil boss: "Remember, the target is a short-haired male wearing a jade pendant and diamond earrings, about 175cm tall, riding a red motorcycle."

She took out her phone and showed the picture of the drone prototype that Qi Xiao had found to the gerbil: "Also, ask your friends to help look for the wreckage of the drone, especially checking places like the trash cans."

The gerbil leader stood up and waved his little paw: [Rat Special Forces, move out!] In the blink of an eye, a group of gerbils scattered and disappeared into the crowd.

Qi Xiao stroked his chin and analyzed, "This person's characteristics are indeed very obvious, but if we ask around, I'm afraid we'll alert him." He unfolded a map of the resort, "There are four entrances and exits here. We can start with surveillance."

Chen Su nodded and added, "According to the time we encountered Bai He, it was 3:48 pm on the 9th. The murderer fled on a red motorcycle. If he had come to the resort, the surveillance camera at the door would have captured him."

"Wait," Xu Ying suddenly thought of something, "Bai He's wound is still very fresh, and he was injured no more than two hours ago. It takes at least 3.5 hours to ride a desert motorcycle from the crime scene to the resort."

Chen Su immediately understood: "Then the monitoring time range can be locked to 4:30 to 7:30 that afternoon."

"There are three of us and four entrances and exits." Xu Ying was thinking about how to distribute the tasks.

Chen Su pointed to the bottom of the map. "The south exit is the farthest, so we can rule it out first." He moved his finger between the other three entrances and exits. "For the remaining three, should we each take charge of one?"

After assigning the tasks, the three came to the resort’s security control room.

In the dim monitoring room, more than a dozen screens flashed real-time images of different entrances and exits simultaneously.

Xu Ying sat in front of the surveillance screen at the east entrance, his finger sliding the mouse wheel quickly, and the screen played the vehicles entering and leaving at twice the speed.

It was completely dark outside the window, and the air conditioning in the monitoring room was whirring. After staring at the screen for half an hour, Xu Ying rubbed her sore eyes. The cars coming and going on the screen began to blur before her eyes. She had to pause the video and take a deep breath.

She turned to look at Chen Su, who was concentrating on checking the surveillance footage. "Captain Chen, is it always this hard for you to check the surveillance footage? Just watching these three hours of footage has made me dizzy."

Chen Su turned around upon hearing this, a gentle smile breaking across his handsome young face. The cold light from the surveillance screen reflected on his sharply defined profile, making his eyebrows and eyes appear particularly deep.

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "It's actually not that bad. We've already practiced it. Besides," he pointed at his eyes, "we in the criminal police team all have built-in 'human scanners'."

His tone was light-hearted and humorous, but his hands were still professional and neat in adjusting the monitoring progress.

Xu Ying noticed that even when he was joking, his eyes never left the screen, and his slender fingers tapped on the keyboard from time to time, marking suspicious time points.

"But to be honest," Chen Su leaned forward slightly, looking at Xu Ying seriously, "We were able to lock down the time range so quickly thanks to your professional judgment. If it weren't for the time you provided when Bai He was injured, we might still be looking for a needle in a haystack."

His bright eyes sparkled with genuine admiration.

About half an hour passed.

"Found it!" Suddenly, Qi Xiao exclaimed in front of the surveillance camera at the north entrance.

The three of them immediately gathered around and saw a young man riding a red motorcycle into the resort. There were mud marks from the wetland on the motorcycle wheels.

Time displayed: 5:23 pm on the 9th.

Chen Su froze the surveillance footage, pointed at the red motorcycle on the screen and said, "Now we have figured out the model and style of the motorcycle." His fingers tapped lightly on the table, his eyes focused on analyzing the details of the picture.

Xu Ying nodded: "I'll ask our little animal friends for help."

She walked quickly out of the security center and took out a silver whistle from her pocket that was specially used to communicate with gerbils.

As soon as the whistle sounded, a round-headed gerbil poked its head out from the nearby bushes, its black bean-like eyes moving alertly.

"The suspect entered the resort from the north gate," Xu Ying squatted down and said to the gerbil in a low voice, "We can narrow the scope of the investigation and go to the north gate to ask your rat relatives first."

As she spoke, she took out a few nuts from her bag.

The little gerbil took the nut, held the food nimbly with its little paws, nodded its furry head twice quickly, then twisted its round little butt and scurried into the grass to inform its companions.

Xu Ying was just about to return to the control room when she was suddenly attracted by the chirping of birds. She looked in the direction of the sound and vaguely heard:

[Should we continue to stay here?]

A bird sounded puzzled.

"We need to maintain our mysterious image, so I think it's best for us to leave." The other one replied in a pretentiously deep voice.

Xu Ying tiptoed towards the source of the sound and found four strangely shaped birds hiding behind the bushes.

They have a crow-like body, but their heads are light yellow, the edges of their wings are dotted with black and white feathers, and the sandy yellow feathers on their abdomens are particularly eye-catching in the sunset.

The most eye-catching thing is the tuft of black feathers on their heads that stick up high, making them look like a black cockscomb, swaying gently in the breeze.

“Guys, this resort has such a rich variety of food! It’s truly a blessed place!” A crow flapped its wings excitedly.

"Yeah, yeah," its companion echoed. "You can just rummage through the trash can and eat your fill."

[But I'm still a little afraid of those humans,]

The third crow shrank its neck. [Many people were holding large black cylinders and slapping them at us.]

(End of this chapter)