Chapter 284 Chicken Soup Warms the Stomach
Seeing the Taimen and Otter starting to fight over the hairpin, Xu Ying quickly reassured them, "Everyone's doing great. The more evidence you find, the more helpful it will be for our investigation."
The two waves of animals finally calmed down.
The otter cub waved its paws proudly: "We even took underwater photos with our underwater camera, so we still won!"
Xu Ying was left in a state of confusion by the otter's competitive spirit.
The mother otter held out her fisted paw and said, "Master Xu, this is for you."
Xu Ying spread out his gloved palm, and the otter mother stretched out her little paw, and a silver key fell into Xu Ying's palm.
"Key? Where's the key?"
Xu Ying looked at the key in his palm. It didn't look like a house key, but more like a key to a warehouse or a small room.
"I don't know if it's the key that another tourist dropped into the water or the key that belonged to the woman's body underwater."
Chen Su opened the evidence bag and Xu Ying put the key in it.
[This is what we found!]
The leader of the Taimen fish spat out a jade-shaped pendant from its mouth. They still remembered Xu Ying's instructions: "We didn't destroy the body. We dug it out from the mud near the body with our mouths."
The otter cub was secretly reporting to Xu Ying: "Master Xu, let me tell you, taimen are very aggressive. We use our little claws to dig for things, but the taimen are driving other small fish over to us so they can find them."
After hearing this, Xu Ying sighed that the Taimen was really a bully in the water and even ordered his younger brothers around.
The leader fish squinted at the otter family and said, "Master Xu, what is that little cub whispering to you?"
Xu Ying quickly brought water: "No, they said you asked other small fish for help, and the division of labor and cooperation is very powerful."
She carefully placed the necklace into the evidence bag.
Chen Su observed the broken part of the necklace and said, "It looks like the necklace was torn apart."
The connection where the necklace breaks is not neat.
Ji Xuehui transferred the night images taken by the underwater camera to the computer, and the screen suddenly lit up in a dazzling pale light - that was a cold beam of light split by the searchlight of the underwater camera in the dark lake water.
Xu Ying's pupils suddenly contracted.
In the center of the light column, the female corpse was suspended in a twisted posture, with her arms stiffly stretched out, as if she was desperately trying to grab something before dying.
The light from the searchlight shone on her face from below, making her terrified face look pale and distorted.
Her eyes were wide open, the whites of her eyes bloodshot, her irises dilated into two black holes in death; her mouth was open as if in a silent scream.
Because of the low temperature at the bottom of the lake, her skin showed no signs of decay. Instead, it appeared a pale, almost transparent color under the strong light, as if it had been soaked in the lake water and turned into a wax figure. Strands of long hair slowly moved in the water like living things, wrapping around her neck and shoulders, while her fingers curled strangely, as if trying to grasp something.
The otter photographer was very careful. He circled around the female corpse underwater to take pictures of her condition, and then moved closer to record the details on the surface of the corpse.
Ji Xuehui was surprised: "There are obvious marks and bruises on the neck of this female corpse!"
"He didn't drown. He was strangled and thrown into the lake. The preliminary conclusion is that he was murdered!"
Xu Ying had already looked away at this time. She really hated her own curiosity. The "stunning scene" of the female corpse on the screen just now had been engraved in her mind.
She turned her face away and rubbed the little otter's face to relieve the discomfort.
"Didn't you say she looked like she was asleep? How can someone sleep with their eyes so wide open?"
The otter cub scratched its paws sheepishly: "We thought she had gone underwater and was sleeping like a fish, with her eyes wide open."
The sensitive Taimen glanced over again: "Stationmaster Xu, are they saying bad things about me again?"
Xu Ying waved his hands quickly.
Ji Xuehui put away her computer. "Master Xu, thank you for your hard work today."
"We'll send the images to the medical examiner for examination, and we'll also extract biological information from the two pieces of evidence. I believe we'll soon know the identity of the woman found at the bottom of the lake."
"It's okay." Xu Ying smiled and shook her head. The system gave her the ability to understand animal language, which changed her predicament of being thrown into the desert at the beginning. She also wanted to give back to the world in the best way she could.
However, as she rescued more and more small animals and the rescue station grew in size, the system rarely popped up to issue tasks. It was said that Xu Ying's efficiency in completing tasks was far beyond imagination. Moreover, as Stationmaster Xu's network of contacts in the desert expanded, news of rescued animals was promptly transmitted to her through Xu Ying's animal intelligence network from all directions.
Xu Ying's score column is now only a few thousand points away from 50,000.
Xu Ying patted Ji Xuehui's shoulder and said, "I'm just doing my best to provide information. I'll have to trouble you to track and investigate from now on!"
Looking at Xu Ying, who was full of energy and enthusiasm, Ji Xuehui couldn't help but be infected by her and a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
Taking advantage of her height, she reached out and pinched Xu Ying's cheek, her tone light and teasing: "That's great! Seeing you so energetic, I also feel that the case will be solved smoothly!"
Chen Su's eyes fell on Ji Xuehui's hand pinching Xu Ying's cheek. "Everyone's worked hard today." This afternoon, there was a traffic jam and a pileup at the Snow Mountain Scenic Area. Short of manpower, Chen Su and the Snow Mountain Police Station were both transferred there, and now they had to investigate the case tonight.
Chen Su took out the car keys from his pocket and said to Xu Ying, "Let me take you back to rest."
"Then I'll leave it to Captain Chen!" Xu Ying smiled at Chen Su, the frost on her eyelashes flashing in the temporary incandescent light.
Xu Ying got on the passenger seat of the police car and gasped as he bent down to get in - the aftereffects of crawling on the ice were only now rising from his joints.
Ji Xuehui leaned against the car window, wanting to speak but hesitant. In the end, she just stuffed the scarf that Xu Ying had dropped into Chen Su's hands and said, "Captain Chen, please take good care of our lucky star who solved the case."
As the police car drove away, Xu Ying saw from the rearview mirror that Ji Xuehui kept waving and saying goodbye to her.
She couldn't help but chuckle, but when she turned her head, she bumped into Chen Su's tense profile.
The man's jawline seemed to be carved out of the Xishan glacier, and even the arc of his Adam's apple revealed a sense of abstinence and restraint.
"There's chicken soup in the thermos. Drink it while it's hot." He spoke in a flat tone, his eyes still looking straight ahead, but his right hand accurately took out a spoon in a sealed bag from the storage compartment and handed it to her.
Xu Ying was stunned and looked down at the storage compartment between the two of them - a medium-sized thermos was placed there steadily, the lid was tightly closed, but a hint of warm steam could be faintly seen.
She blinked and couldn't help asking, "Captain Chen, this chicken soup...where did you get it from?"
(End of this chapter)
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