Amidst the tourists’ roaring laughter, the King Kong Parrot hopped around like a clown playing to the crowd, squawking a clear, sharp, "Dumbass, dumbass."
"Officer, why are you looking for this parrot?" Director Hong asked curiously.
He had never encountered a situation where the police ca specifically looking for an animal.
Shen Xin said, "We need to investigate a case. Director Hong, could you please get... Pipi, is it? Please get Pipi’s keeper. We need to ask him so questions."
Director Hong’s expression changed slightly upon hearing about an investigation.
He subconsciously assud a tourist had been injured while interacting with the parrot.
But as he thought back, nothing of the sort had happened.
There was a fence, and the parrot was secured with a chain. Tourists couldn’t reach it.
There were staff mbers on-site, too. If anyone tried to climb the fence, they would be stopped imdiately.
Besides, Pipi loved to argue. It was all talk and no action.
Crucially, if sothing really had happened with a tourist, they would usually file a complaint with the zoo on the spot. They would only call the police if they weren’t satisfied.
Not wanting to ask too many questions, he just nodded and left.
After he left, Shen Xin continued to silently observe the parrot, pondering his next move.
Drawing on past experience, Shen Xin had already co up with a plan while searching for this parrot.
’Assuming the parrot was at the cri scene, it most likely saw the killer.’
’And there’s a high probability the killer wouldn’t have paid any mind to a parrot.’
Shen Xin had done his research. King Kong Parrots were not only smart—as intelligent as a four- or five-year-old child—but also possessed an excellent mory.
He had seen news reports stating that a King Kong Parrot could recognize its original owner even after ten years.
The case file now contained a composite sketch of Sun Kai.
It was drawn based on the testimony of multiple people, so it should be quite realistic.
Therefore, Shen Xin’s plan was simple: build a rapport with this parrot, preferably to the second stage where he could hear its thoughts, and then try to recreate the cri scene.
He wanted to see if he could uncover any new clues through its thoughts.
For example, how many killers were at the scene.
In the case file, Qin Chuanwang had only speculated it was a group cri, but the exact number of killers was never determined.
Before long, Director Hong returned with a young man.
"This is Xiaoli. He’s usually the one who takes care of these King Kongs," Director Hong introduced.
His na was Li Xiaobing. He was 29 years old and had been working at the zoo for six years, so he was the one who had taken in Broo.
Shen Xin led him to a quiet spot outside and asked him to recall the circumstances of Broo’s arrival.
"It can talk, right? Did it say anything particularly unusual back then?"
Shen Xin urged him to try his best to rember.
When the zoo took in Broo, not much ti had passed since the cri. Broo’s mory should have been clear.
Li Xiaobing found it strange. "That was years ago. Why are you suddenly asking about this now? I’ll have to think."
"No rush. Take your ti."
Shen Xin slled cigarette smoke on him, so he took a pack out of his pocket and offered one.
He didn’t smoke himself, but in Zhao Tianxing’s words, they ca in handy during interviews. A single cigarette could get soone talking.
Li Xiaobing accepted it and thought carefully for a long while before saying, "I rember Pipi was sent over by the Forestry Bureau. They said soone had brought him into the country illegally. That kind of thing had happened before, so we didn’t think much of it and just took him in."
"At the ti, Pipi wasn’t an adult yet. He had been well-fed. At first, he wouldn’t eat the food we gave him. He only ate pistachios, pine nuts, and Hawaii nuts. To be honest, we couldn’t afford that stuff."
"I rember he was pretty well-behaved. He’s male, and while parrots are social, they can get into fights easily. But he never fought. He always avoided the other male King Kongs. He seed quite smart."
"I rember he could talk back then. He could say basic things like ’hello’ and ’nice to et you.’ Oh, right, he also used to say ’Tingting.’ I don’t know what that ant."
Shen Xin and Ding Yuwei exchanged a look.
They realized he must have been talking about Liu Yuting.
It seed Liu Laibin had bought the parrot for his daughter.
"As for anything else, like you said, anything unusual... there wasn’t anything." Li Xiaobing shook his head and added, "Besides, he’s just a parrot. What could be so unusual about him?"
Shen Xin nodded, then asked him about how Broo started arguing with people.
"Who taught him to call people a ’dumbass’?" Shen Xin looked at Li Xiaobing.
Li Xiaobing quickly waved his hands. "It wasn’t ! I think it was back in 2015. Yeah, it must have been 2015. He would have been four years old then. In 2014, after he’d been at the zoo for over half a year getting acclimated, we put him out to interact with the tourists."
"I don’t rember the exact day, but it was soti in July. I was getting off work and putting them back in their cages as usual when he suddenly blurted out ’dumbass’ at ."
"I was stunned. I teased him a bit, and he shot back, ’You’re the dumbass.’"
"I didn’t think much of it at the ti. I just figured so tourist must have said it to him and he rembered it. But then, from that day on, he started saying ’dumbass, dumbass’ all the ti. Over ti, it just beca his thing. Now, a lot of tourists with nothing better to do co over just to get into an argunt with him."
"He’s beco sothing of an internet celebrity animal. A lot of people know about him."
Li Xiaobing said it casually, but Shen Xin was suddenly energized.
After asking a few more questions, he let Li Xiaobing go back to his work.
"Ding Yuwei, what do you think?" Shen Xin asked.
Ding Yuwei had a good habit: she didn’t talk much, she just got things done. If you didn’t ask, she wouldn’t speak.
"Shen Xin, are you suggesting that the reason the parrot suddenly started saying ’dumbass’ is because it ran into soone it knew? Like... Sun Kai?" Ding Yuwei ventured.
Shen Xin nodded.
’That’s exactly what I was thinking.’
Otherwise, as Li Xiaobing said, for it to have been so well-behaved and then suddenly start cursing was a bit abnormal.
But there were still so problems.
’If my theory is correct, and Broo saw Sun Kai among the tourists, then even if it had witnessed its owner being killed, it should be like Lele—it shouldn’t be able to comprehend the act of murder.’
’So there would be even less reason for it to have ford such a strong mory of Sun Kai.’
’Besides, Sun Kai had only visited Liu Laibin’s company a few tis. Why would the parrot curse him out for no reason?’
’All in all, it just doesn’t add up.’
But it was a possible lead.
Even Chen Chao had said it: make bold hypotheses. Sotis, things that seem illogical can turn into a clue.
Shen Xin imdiately found Director Hong and asked him how long the surveillance footage for the parrot area was kept.
’They do have surveillance here.’
"Three months."
’As expected.’
"What about the ticket purchase records for tourists? How long do you keep those?" Shen Xin asked.
’It was July 2015. Tickets required real-na registration. Maybe I can find Sun Kai’s real identity information.’
Director Hong shook his head again. "A year at most. We clear them out annually. Business at the zoo has been a bit slow these past two years, but we still get one to two million visitors a year. It’s impossible to keep the records forever."
Shen Xin sighed. ’Great, another dead end.’
Cold cases were like this. When a case went unsolved for too long, many of the necessary conditions for solving it disappeared.
"Director Hong, we’ll be leaving for now. I’ll contact you again if anything cos up."
Shen Xin planned to co back by himself after the zoo closed to try and build so rapport with the King Kong Parrot.
And since there was still so ti left in the afternoon, Shen Xin wanted to go to Jinhui Mansion to find that security manager, Guo Chunping.
Leaving the zoo, Ding Yuwei also felt like it had been a wild goose chase.
"Shen Xin, you seem to really care about these small animals," Ding Yuwei asked hesitantly.
She had read through Liu Laibin’s case file several tis, morizing every single word, but she had never noticed the parrot.
But Shen Xin had. He had managed to nearly find a clue about Sun Kai just through this parrot.
It was the sa with the previous Wu Jiawang case, which he had cracked with Lele’s help.
"I just have a soft spot for small animals."
Shen Xin gave a casual excuse.
Soon, the two of them arrived at Jinhui Mansion.
Four years had passed, and it looked even more dilapidated.
After showing their credentials, they quickly t with this Guo Chunping.
Demographic information showed he was 46 years old. He had a square face and a muffled voice, giving off a serious impression.
His hair was a bit greasy and his beard was scruffy. He probably didn’t pay much attention to personal hygiene.
When he heard Shen Xin and his partner were there to ask about the Liu Laibin case, he was visibly taken aback.
"This case... are they investigating it again?" he asked, surprised.
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