(Quick Transmigration) Even If You Become an Animal, You Still Have to Serve an Iron Rice Bowl - Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

After gathering all of the victims together, the police contacted Su Hui’s relatives back in her hometown.

Like many left-behind children, Su Hui had been raised by her grandparents after her parents passed away and grew up in a closed-off mountain village. ¹

The village was remote and poor, so the whole family’s yearly income barely reached four digits. 

She had been so desperate to leave the mountains and go to a big city to make money, hoping to bring her grandparents over to enjoy their later years in comfort.

But sadly, she met the wrong kind of people. Before she could realize her dream, her life was cut short. 

Yang Yue was the one who made the phone call. After reaching out to the relatives, she ran back to the dorm and sat quietly while holding Shen Qiu for a long while. 

At the time, Shen Qiu still didn’t understand what was going on with Yang Yue. It wasn’t until three days later, when he saw Su Hui’s family come to claim the body.

Two elderly people, who looked around seventy or eighty years old, supported each other as they walked into the police station’s lobby. 

Their faces were full of wrinkles and exhaustion. The grandfather was carrying a woven bag and, very reservedly, asked the police some questions. 

Shen Qiu happened to be nearby. Upon hearing they were here for Su Hui’s body, he immediately froze. 

A police officer called to him: “Qiuqiu, go get Yang Yue!”

Shen Qiu flicked his tail, gave the two elders a complicated look, and left.

Later, when Yang Yue recounted the case details, Shen Qiu didn’t go in. He couldn’t handle the atmosphere.

Hearing the old lady’s sobs coming from inside, he paced restlessly outside the door. At last, the two elders took one last look at Su Hui’s body and broke down crying, nearly fainting from grief. 

In the end, the bureau paid to have Su Hui cremated. When the director learned of this, he deliberately got together with Qin Yan and the others and raised two thousand yuan to give to the elders.

The two refused, even stiff-facedly saying that forcing money on them was an insult.

“We can still work! We have land at home. We’re not short of this bit of money, and we can’t take your money for nothing!”

After speaking, they bowed deeply to the director and others with tears in their eyes. 

“You recovered our girl’s body and found the one who killed her. That’s already more than enough.”

“We old folks still have to thank you.”

With that, the pair again supported each other and left in the same way they had come in.  Only now, the old lady was clutching a box tightly in her arms as if afraid of dropping it. Their steps slowly grew more and more unsteady, their backs full of weariness.

After seeing the two elders off, the whole bureau’s mood was heavy.

Wang Miao had died along with Su Hui, but the real culprit was still at large. If not for Old K needing test subjects for his new drug, Su Hui might have escaped this disaster.

Thinking it over, Qin Yan and the others felt they needed to take out the gang selling these new drugs to give peace to Su Hui and the more than sixty other victims.

Just then, the day after the two elders left, Wang Miao’s phone received a WeChat message from Old K.

The sender clearly didn’t know Wang Miao was dead and had sent a very short note:

“This Saturday, old place. Upgraded version.”

Seeing this, Qin Yan and the others’ eyes lit up. They hadn’t even gone looking, and this man had taken the initiative to contact them.

Qin Yan immediately went back to interrogate Zhang Kang again, asking about places Wang Miao often went. Zhang Kang looked distressed.

“How would I know that, officer? I told you, lately he hasn’t really been telling me anything.”

Qin Yan frowned. “Didn’t he have any odd behavior at all? Where did he get those things from?”

Zhang Kang held his head, thinking hard. “Odd behavior… Other than going out a lot after getting involved, not really. Though he did have one habit since childhood.”

Qin Yan and the others perked up. “Tell us!”

“Well, we were poor as kids, so we used to pick up plastic bottles and cardboard to sell. When we grew up, he never dropped the habit. Even when he got richer, Wang Miao still liked to pick things up and bring them back.”

The more Zhang Kang spoke, the more puzzled he looked. “I used to think it was some weird quirk, but now that I say it out loud, something seems off. As a kid, he hated collecting bottles because others mocked it as dirty. He always said that once he had ,money he’d never do that again!”

Qin Yan and Zhang Kang exchanged puzzled looks.

“Do you remember the last time he brought stuff back or sold scrap?”

Zhang Kang thought back. “Probably the day before he disappeared! When I came home after an all-nighter, I saw him coming back with a bag of bottles.”

Qin Yan immediately got up and left.

“How is it looking, Captain?”

Yang Yue and the others hurried over. 

“Pull the surveillance. Get every camera near Wuyi Alley the day before Wang Miao disappeared. Check every trash can, garbage station, and recycling bin. If Wang Miao appears, check carefully and record the location.”

“Yes!”

Going through surveillance was a massive job, especially since the footage was from nearly half a month ago, so the entire bureau became busy.

Shen Qiu was sent back to the dorm since there wasn’t much he could do to help. He trained as usual until 4:00 Am on Saturday, when Qin Yan woke him up.

“Qiuqiu, we’ve got a mission for you.”

Shen Qiu: ?

Still groggy, he didn’t realize what was happening until a black collar was fastened around his neck.

After two days and nights of searching, they had finally found footage of Wang Miao picking things out of a trash can. The trash can was at the deepest part of Wuyi Alley, and the camera only caught a corner.

Checking the timeline, Wang Miao had been coming there almost every two weeks, so the police determined this must be the “old place” Old K mentioned.

But time was too short. If the police tried to set up a stakeout, it would obviously tip him off. So after some discussion, they decided to use the bureau’s secret weapon, their police cat.

Hearing this, Shen Qiu was even more confused. He was just a cat. What could he do? He pawed at the collar around his neck again; the thing was really uncomfortable.

Yang Yue pressed down his paw. “Be good, Qiuqiu. There’s a camera on this. Be careful not to break it.”

A camera? Could it be they wanted him to record Old K’s face?

As it turned out, Shen Qiu had guessed right.

After the task-force meeting, it was Yang Yue who proposed placing a pinhole camera on the cat’s collar and sending Shen Qiu to the scene to capture the man putting down the drugs. That would be solid evidence in court.

If he could also get a shot of the man’s face and follow the trail back, even better. They had checked all the surveillance, and Old K had always hidden himself well, never showing up on camera.

Once he understood the plan, Shen Qiu got excited.  He was perfect for this kind of job!

His tail swished as he gave Yang Yue and the others a reassuring look.

“Meow meow meow~” Relax. Don’t worry. I’ll bring back the man and the evidence!

To stay covert, they set out under the cover of darkness before dawn. 

Yang Yue carried the cat along a side road toward Wuyi Alley. At the alley entrance, she set Shen Qiu down on the wall and signaled him to move forward.

Yang Yue’s heart was pounding, afraid Shen Qiu wouldn’t understand her meaning.

But clearly, Shen Qiu not only understood but could think for himself.

Following the wall forward, he quickly reached the spot shown in the footage. Shen Qiu had thought he was early enough, but just as he reached the place, he ran right into a searching gaze.

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^{1. [留守儿童 (liúshǒuértóng) — Also refers to “stay-at-home” children. These are rural children whose parents leave to work in urban areas. There’s a Chinese NYT article that pops up if you search the phrase.]↩}

T/N: I started tearing up while translating the portion about the elders coming to the station. Just the thought of an old couple coming in to pick up their daughter’s body…really depressing.

Also, I was able to update my formatting and make some edits to the earlier chapter so it’s a bit cleaner! I also want to add JPGs to the chapters that mention it but that will be a future edit. The first chapter has JPGs now though so check it out and let me know what you think!

2.1k characters to 1.4k words | Translation Time: 1.5 hours