Animal Detective-Chapter 48: Text Message

Gao Jinrui took a sip of water to moisten his throat.

He seemed to be looking for a way to start.

After a moment’s thought, he said, "I went to a good university. After graduation, my family pulled some strings to get me into the district’s Bureau of Education."

Zhao Tianxing’s fingers tapped on the keyboard as he took notes.

"I was a good writer and my major was a perfect fit, so I did very well at my job. By my early thirties, I’d already been promoted to section chief."

"By that time, I was already married, and my son was four or five years old. He was a sturdy, bright-eyed little boy, and he was especially attached to me."

A smile touched his lips.

"Back then, I truly felt that my life was perfect, that I was incredibly happy. But... because of one text message, everything changed."

His tone grew heavy, and his eyes filled with pain.

Chen Chao and Zhao Tianxing exchanged a glance, then looked up in surprise toward the monitoring room.

It wasn’t just them; in the monitoring room, Sun Zhao and Lv Youwei also wore looks of astonishment.

Gao Jinrui’s tone sounded like he was about to confess everything.

In the room, Gao Jinrui sighed again. "I remember it was Arbor Day," he said. "The district was holding a tree-planting event, and after it was over, the bureau took everyone out for dinner."

"I knew I shouldn’t drink since I’d driven there, but I couldn’t fend off all the coaxing and ended up having a few glasses."

"When we were done drinking, Old Chen from the Education Section offered to arrange for someone to drive me home. I figured it was no big deal and turned him down. I was familiar with the area, you see. I knew the traffic police usually only set up checkpoints at night, and I figured I’d be fine if I took the back roads."

"God, if only I’d just said yes then."

Gao Jinrui couldn’t stop sighing.

"I took Huiting Road, then turned onto the small road beside the Chenfei Motor Factory. From there, I passed under National Highway 372 and got on a county road. I wasn’t far from home at all."

"Then, can you believe the timing? My phone went off—someone sent me a text. I reached for it, but my hand slipped, and it fell onto the passenger’s side floor. So I bent down to grope for it. I was just feeling around, mind you. Before I actually lowered my head, I specifically glanced ahead. Only when I saw the road was clear did I look down."

"And then..."

Gao Jinrui closed his eyes, his face contorting in pain.

"It was just for a second. I don’t know where that kid came from. He just darted out so suddenly. By the time I reacted, I’d already run over him."

Across from him, Chen Chao stared at Gao Jinrui in disbelief.

After he had submitted the report, waited for his superiors to discuss it, and finally received approval to proceed, he had considered many different possibilities.

He’d even prepared several contingency plans for the interrogation, assuming that because the case was so old, it would be difficult to directly connect Gao Jinrui to Wu Jiawang’s disappearance, even with the crucial evidence of the fingerprint on the eye drop bottle.

But he had never, ever imagined that Gao Jinrui would just confess like this before he’d even said a word.

That one sentence—"I’d already run over him"—was tantamount to a confession.

And yet, as he said it, Gao Jinrui’s face showed no sign of relief. On the contrary, his expression became even more pained.

"I was terrified. I scrambled out of the car to see... The boy was pretty big. I don’t know what part of the car went over him, but his head was covered in blood. And his leg... it was twisted around the wrong way, completely mangled."

"I was paralyzed with fear. I thought about calling the police, but I’d been drinking. On top of that, I’d been a section chief for less than a year. If I reported it, my life would be over."

"The road was deserted, too. I don’t know how long I just stood there, stunned. When I looked at the boy again, he wasn’t moving. He was dead."

「In the monitoring room.」

No one spoke. Shen Xin sighed silently to himself.

’So my wild guess was actually right. The accident happened right there on that unnamed road by the underpass.’

Shen Xin just hadn’t expected Gao Jinrui to confess so directly.

They hadn’t even really interrogated him.

After the unexpected discovery of the eye drop bottle, both Shen Xin and Chen Chao had been elated, especially when the fingerprint on it turned out to be a match for Gao Jinrui.

Back then, it truly felt like the case was about to break wide open.

But after they discussed it, they realized it wasn’t enough. Gao Jinrui could still find a way to talk himself out of it, perhaps by only admitting that he had visited the Wu Family’s home.

In the end, Chen Chao was the one who made the call: use the clues they had to bring Gao Jinrui in "to assist with the investigation," a move designed to put him in check.

Who would have thought he’d just spill everything?

Looking at Gao Jinrui’s tormented expression, Shen Xin figured the weight of this secret had been pressing down on him for so long that he was on the verge of collapse.

Chen Chao had once said that cases like this—where suspects turn themselves in because they can no longer handle the immense psychological pressure—weren’t rare at all.

Gao Jinrui seemed to be a textbook example.

"Then what?" Chen Chao asked.

Gao Jinrui said, "It was like I was possessed. All I could think was that nobody could ever find out. I had to hide the body. I thought about burying him."

"Coincidentally, my wife knew we were going tree-planting and had asked me to grab a few saplings for her. I had them in the trunk, along with a shovel."

"There was a stretch of wasteland right there. I figured if I buried him there, no one would ever find him."

"So I put him in the trunk. There was a dog there, too. I tried to scare it, but it wouldn’t leave. I was about to kill it, but it ran away."

"It was the middle of the afternoon, broad daylight. I was terrified a car might drive by, so I couldn’t be bothered with anything else and just left in a hurry."

"Thinking back on it now, I didn’t even wipe up the blood on the ground."

He was speaking so much his mouth went dry, and he took another sip of water.

"I drove a short distance, parked on the side of the road, and went to scout the area first. I knew people had vegetable plots there, but Heaven was on my side—there wasn’t a soul in sight."

"I considered driving farther away, or waiting until dark to do the burying, but I was worried I wouldn’t be able to explain why I was home so late. So I just gritted my teeth and carried him into the field."

"Honestly, the boy was so thin; he didn’t weigh a thing. I carried him to a secluded spot and was getting ready to dig when, I don’t know what came over me, I had an idea."

"My family’s ancestral tomb was nearby!"

Chen Chao looked up, his gaze once again turning toward the monitoring room.

He was astonished to find that Shen Xin had predicted everything.

Gao Jinrui continued, "I was thinking, if I just buried him somewhere random, what if someone decided to clear the land for a new vegetable plot and dug him up? But burying him inside a tomb was different. Who on earth would dig up a tomb?"

At this, Lv Youwei, who was in the monitoring room, looked left and right before his gaze finally settled on Shen Xin in the corner.

He was aware of the details of the investigation.

Therefore, he knew that the theory—that Wu Jiawang’s body was in the Gao Family’s ancestral tomb—had come from Shen Xin.

To think Shen Xin had been completely right.

Shen Xin didn’t notice Lv Youwei’s stare; he was just listening silently to Gao Jinrui’s story.

"My mind was a complete fog back then. The moment I thought of it, I did it. I didn’t even stop to consider whether anyone might pass by."

"Honestly, when I think back, it would have been better if someone had seen me. It would have saved me from being tormented by this for so many years."

He put down his cup, his expression suddenly twisting into one of terror.

"Do you know what happened? After all that work, I finally managed to dig the tomb open. I turned around, and a hand suddenly grabbed my pant leg."

"I almost died of fright!"

Across from him, Zhao Tianxing jumped in his seat, his chair scraping loudly against the floor.

Chen Chao shot him a glare, then said in a heavy tone, "So, you’re saying the boy wasn’t dead at the time?"

If Wu Jiawang hadn’t been dead at that moment and was subsequently buried alive by Gao Jinrui, then this would be a completely different matter.

「In the monitoring room.」

The expressions on Lv Youwei and Sun Zhao’s faces changed as well.

What could have been considered a case of involuntary manslaughter had now become outright murder.