Chapter 218: The Old Hunter

Chen Shi asked, “Officer Liu, how long have you been living here?”

“Sigh, almost ten years,” Officer Liu said, lighting a cigarette. “Sometimes I feel like a hunter, chasing this beast for so many years, and turning into a beast myself.”

“You are a good policeman!” Chen Shi said admiringly.

“Not at all!” Officer Liu waved his hand repeatedly. “I’m a failure. After all these years, I haven’t solved the case or given the victims’ families any closure. By the way, do you need the information here? I can give you everything without reservation.”

Chen Shi said, “I have an unusual request. How about lending us this apartment for a few days? It would save us the hassle of moving around, and your organized materials are very convenient.”

Officer Liu immediately removed a key from his keychain and handed it to Chen Shi, “Alright, I’ll leave the key with you. I’ll visit my mother for a few days. Contact me immediately if there’s any progress. I want to see that bastard caught more than anyone.”

Outside, the sound of a car engine starting up drew Officer Liu to the window. “That Mazda is his car. I can recognize it just by the sound. Not to brag, but I can even identify Liu Hong’s cough from down below.”

The three looked out the window. Suddenly, the young monk dashed out the door. Xu Xiaodong said, “Is he going to do something rash?”

“Stop him!” Lin Dongxue said.

The three hurried downstairs. They found the young monk standing in the middle of the road, bowing towards the Mazda. A burly man with a fierce face leaned out of the car, slapped the vehicle, and cursed, “Get out of the way, you damn monk!”

Liu Hong, a hulking figure in a floral shirt with a thick gold chain around his neck, had a woman in the passenger seat. She had a typical internet celebrity look with a sharp chin and large eyes, her face caked with makeup.

The young monk didn’t move. He stared intently at Liu Hong’s face. Liu Hong, still cursing, pulled a fifty-yuan bill from his wallet and threw it on the ground, “Get lost and find yourself a prostitute!”

Then he started the car, and the young monk stepped aside.

After Liu Hong left, the three approached. Lin Dongxue asked, “Little Master, what were you thinking? You scared us!”

The young monk, with tears in his eyes, said, “It’s him. I will never forget that face. He’s the one who killed my father!”

“He will get what he deserves,” Chen Shi said.

Chen Shi asked Xu Xiaodong to take the young monk back home. The young monk insisted he could go back on his own. The three returned to the apartment and began reading through Officer Liu’s documents. The amount of information was overwhelming, and they read until two in the afternoon, straining their eyes.

Xu Xiaodong collapsed into a chair, groaning, “I never worked this hard even when preparing for exams. Are you guys hungry? Should I order some takeout?”

“Whatever is fine,” Chen Shi said. “Let’s discuss what we found.”

Lin Dongxue said, “I started with the missing persons cases from ’98. I summarized Liu Hong’s rise. In the ’90s, he was a street vendor selling dogs. Later, he bred two Tibetan Mastiffs. Those years, Tibetan Mastiffs were highly prized, and he made a fortune, opening his own pet shop. Liu Hong truly rose by selling a breed called the Snow Mastiff. These could sell for over thirty thousand yuan each, while regular Tibetan Mastiffs were only worth three or four thousand. However, it seems Liu Hong’s Snow Mastiffs weren’t purebred. From ’98 to ’07, several people around him went missing, including three competitors, a CKU canine pedigree judge and his wife, a pet doctor (the young monk’s father), a quarantine officer, a lawyer, and several others with no obvious connection. After these disappearances, Liu Hong became the sole seller of Snow Mastiffs in Long’an City, and the price stabilized at twenty-five thousand. His motive is clear.”

Xu Xiaodong said, “It seems his killings were purposeful, unlike those psychopaths who kill for fun.”

Chen Shi said, “I suspect his Snow Mastiffs are fakes. To monopolize the market, he eliminated everyone who posed a threat to his business. Killing has become his way of solving problems, and he’s become quite adept at it.”

“What did you find?” Lin Dongxue asked.

“From ’98 to ’15, over thirty people went missing. I categorized these disappearances and identified three phases in Liu Hong’s killings. The first phase, from ’98 to ’00, he killed only one competitor, a dominant figure in Long’an’s dog trade with possible gang connections. This seemed more of a defensive killing. The second phase, from ’00 to ’07, his killings were highly motivated, and he became Long’an’s biggest dog trader. There was then a three-year gap before more people went missing, all from various professions but all connected to Liu Hong. During this phase, he was cleaning up his tracks.”

“What!?” Both were shocked.

“I noticed the third group of missing persons were around Liu Hong’s age, some even his hometown friends who were doing well. I guess these were his friends or partners. They knew his secrets, so after eliminating outsiders, Liu Hong started eliminating his friends to take his secrets to the grave.”

Xu Xiaodong gasped, “We read the same files, but how did you see so much?”

“Maybe because your girlfriend keeps texting you,” Chen Shi said lightly.

Xu Xiaodong felt guilty. He had been distracted, texting Xiao Li earlier.

“But we’re only discussing disappearances. Without bodies, we don’t know the method of the crimes or whether it was one person or multiple people,” Chen Shi sighed.

“Yes, finding the bodies is crucial. Should we check out Liu Hong’s dog farm?” Lin Dongxue suggested.

“Too abrupt. We need a reason,” Chen Shi pondered.

“What reason? Let’s just sneak in at night and investigate!” Xu Xiaodong said.

Lin Dongxue’s face twitched, “That farm is full of Tibetan Mastiffs! I’m not sneaking in at night!”

“Let’s first scout the area and then come up with a plan,” Chen Shi said.

In the afternoon, the three visited Liu Hong’s dog farm on the outskirts. The sign read “Xiaotian Purebred Dog Breeding Base.” Chen Shi remarked, “What an arrogant name!”

“Does he breed celestial dogs?” Xu Xiaodong joked. “How do we get in? Should we pretend to buy a dog?”

Chen Shi looked inside. There were several staff members. This wasn’t a place to just walk in and buy a dog. They would likely be chased out. The farm stood alone in the wilderness, with dog barks audible from miles away.

He muttered, “Looks like we’ll have to take the sneaky route.”