(Quick Transmigration) Even If You Become an Animal, You Still Have to Serve an Iron Rice Bowl - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: 

Shen Qiu narrowed his golden cat eyes and searched the room, but didn’t find anything else. Just as he was about to leave, he caught a pair of shoes on the rack with muddy soles from the corner of his eye. 

They looked like someone had walked along a riverbank.

For no particular reason, Shen Qiu thought of Zheng Yang, who liked to go fishing.

When the man had first seen the police cat, he’d stared at Shen Qiu the whole time. Noticing the cat fixating on the shoes, he spoke up on his own.

“Those are my wife’s shoes. She wears them when she goes down to the river to collect fish.”

Shen Qiu’s eyes flickered, but he didn’t react. He turned and left the neighbor’s apartment.

Qin Yan asked if he’d found anything. Shen Qiu shook his fluffy head and didn’t make a sound.

He still needed to confirm something.

Shen Qiu led Qin Yan and the others straight to the parking lot. Yang Yue and the rest were already checking Zheng Yang’s car. As soon as they got close, a familiar earthy smell drifted over.

Shen Qiu knew he was on the right track.

He jumped onto the trunk and crouched in front of a pair of mud-stained shoes.

“Meow.”

He looked at Qin Yan.

Qin Yan had been following Shen Qiu the whole time and immediately understood what was wrong with those shoes. His expression changed at once.

“Lao San! Go check the neighbors—both husband and wife!”

Before he even finished speaking, an officer ran over.

“Boss, the kidnapper just called again. He’s threatening them.”

Qin Yan and Shen Qiu both turned and ran back at full speed.

When they reached the Yang household, Yang Xia had just answered the phone.

The androgynous voice came through the receiver again, sounding even more anxious this time.

“You still haven’t withdrawn the report, have you? Do you not want your child anymore?”

Without waiting for a reply, the sound of a child crying suddenly came through the line.

Yang Xia panicked as soon as she heard it.

“Jiaozi, Jiaozi, don’t cry—Mommy’s here!”

The grandparents beside her became agitated as well. Sitting on the couch, both elderly people began wiping away tears.

Shen Qiu frowned.

The cat turned to Qin Yan. Human and cat exchanged a look—they both sensed something was off.

Qin Yan immediately took out his phone and started recording.

But the other side reacted quickly. After playing only a few seconds, they moved the phone away and urged Yang Xia to drop the case immediately, threatening that next time it would be a severed finger.

Qin Yan managed to record only about a second of crying, very short.

He replayed it several times.

“This sound… there’s interference. It sounds distorted,” Qin Yan said.

Yang Yue spoke cautiously, “It looks like it was recorded in advance.”

Lao San’s eyes lit up. “It really does sound like a prerecorded clip!”

Qin Yan turned and headed straight for the door. Shen Qiu trotted after him.

“Lao San, stay here and keep everyone in the Yang household under watch. Da Zhuang, immediately look into the places the neighbor couple usually go, and also pull up Zheng Yang’s fishing routes and locations!”

With that, Qin Yan and Shen Qiu rushed back to the station.

Everyone in the criminal investigation unit split up and got to work.

Shen Qiu and Qin Yan began reviewing surveillance footage. They confirmed that both neighbors went to the riverbank to collect fish every day, then checked Zheng Yang’s fishing routes.

Part of Zheng Yang’s fishing route overlapped with the neighbors’ path to the river.

Qin Yan narrowed the timeframe to recent days. Three days earlier, the day before the child disappeared, they saw Zheng Yang get into the neighbors’ car at the intersection of the two routes, then head together toward the fishing spot.

Shen Qiu jumped down from the chair. Qin Yan grabbed his cap and turned to leave.

Outside, they ran into Da Zhuang.

“Boss, the neighbor said his wife, Chen Xue, went traveling to another city the day before yesterday with a close friend.”

“Any flight information?” Qin Yan asked.

Da Zhuang shook his head.

“No. While checking her travel footage, we found that she took a taxi to the airport, then flagged down a van and headed back instead. The van had fake plates. After that, we lost track of it.”

Qin Yan glanced over the statement, then put a leash on Shen Qiu.

“Bring everyone. Let’s move.”

Police sirens wailed as they sped toward Zheng Yang’s fishing spot.

The area was downstream along the river, with a city waterway nearby. Zheng Yang usually fished in that river.

When the police cars arrived, there were still plenty of people fishing nearby. Seeing the police, they gathered around, and officers quickly set up a perimeter.

Qin Yan unclipped Shen Qiu’s leash.

Shen Qiu twitched his nose. The familiar earthy smell was identical to what clung to the soles of Zheng Yang’s and Chen Xue’s shoes.

And he could also smell something else…something that belonged to a child.

He looked around, then fixed his gaze on a wooded area by the river.

Turning, he headed into the trees.

The closer he got, the stronger the scent became.

Inside the woods, Shen Qiu found an abandoned land shrine. The children’s scent was coming from there.

He alerted Qin Yan first, then continued searching. Beneath a layer of fallen leaves, he found insect-repelling herbs.

“Meow.” Qin Yan…

Qin Yan picked them up and saw that they were exactly the same as what Yang Xia had shown him.

At the same time, Shen Qiu noticed clothing fibers caught on a tree branch.

Yellow—it matched what the child had been wearing on the day he disappeared.

Qin Yan took a deep breath. “Looks like Zheng Yang brought the child here first. Probably because there were too many people fishing nearby, he moved them somewhere else afterward.”

Although there was no conclusive evidence yet that Zheng Yang and the neighbor, Chen Xue, were working together, all the clues pointed to their involvement.

At this point, it seemed that only Zheng Yang knew where Chen Xue and the children were.

Leaving Da Zhuang and the others to process the scene, Qin Yan and Shen Qiu hurried back to the station.

Zheng Yang was already in the interrogation room.

When Qin Yan and Shen Qiu entered, Zheng Yang was sitting in the interrogation chair with his head lowered.

He looked up at the sound of footsteps, his face far more haggard than earlier that morning.

“Officer, what are you doing? You should be out there looking for my son, not suspecting me—the child’s father!”

His tone was full of indignation.

Shen Qiu found it bitterly ironic. On the surface, the man looked honest and simple, just like countless ordinary men: a good father, a good husband.

Who would have imagined the monster hidden beneath that facade?

Qin Yan’s face was cold as he stepped directly in front of Zheng Yang.

“Talk. Where are Chen Xue and the children?”

Zheng Yang was about to put on another act, but his eyelids twitched when he heard that.

He quickly lowered his head. “Officer, I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Zheng Yang, we found the children’s clothing fibers at the land shrine. All that’s left is to collect evidence and match the footprints from you and Chen Xue at the scene. That will be enough to prove the two of you staged this together.”

Zheng Yang’s face drained of color.

Shen Qiu grew impatient and flicked his tail against the floor.

Why did Chen Xue use a prerecorded cry to deceive Yang Xia? Was that finger really the child’s? What condition were the children in right now?

Every minute Zheng Yang stalled increased the danger to the children.

No one knew whether Chen Xue would harm them once she realized things had fallen apart.

The only way to prevent tragedy was to find Chen Xue and the children as soon as possible.

And the only person who could lead them there was Zheng Yang.

The surveillance had already been checked. After the children were moved from the shrine, there was no trace of where they were taken next.

Thinking about this, Shen Qiu stepped forward and slammed a paw down hard on Zheng Yang’s leg.

Zheng Yang jolted in fright. When he looked down and met the cat’s golden eyes, his gaze shrank.

He lowered his head again.

“I don’t know. Stop asking me.”

Qin Yan slammed his hand on the table, furious.

“Zheng Yang! If you confess now, you can still argue for leniency! If you keep your mouth shut, you already know the sentence for kidnapping and extortion. You looked it up before doing this!”

Zheng Yang kept his head down, his expression unreadable.

Qin Yan was about to continue when someone knocked on the door.

It was Yang Yue.

“Boss, Yang Xia wants to speak to Zheng Yang herself.”

Qin Yan frowned. “She knows?”

“She figured it out on her own.”

Qin Yan hesitated, worried that Zheng Yang might say something that would upset her. Shen Qiu tugged at Qin Yan’s pant leg.

There wasn’t time to hesitate anymore.

Qin Yan took a deep breath and let Yang Xia in.

She didn’t speak at first. It looked like she’d just cried hard again. Her eyes were swollen.

She stared at Zheng Yang for a long moment, then suddenly stepped forward and handed him something.

Qin Yan moved to stop her, but Shen Qiu saw the words on the paper.

DNA test…

A possibility flashed through his mind as Yang Xia spoke.

“I know you’ve always suspected the children weren’t yours, but I never thought you’d do something like this.”

Zheng Yang lowered his head and saw the DNA report.

He barely had time to register the names before his eyes locked onto the result—99% probability of a father-son relationship.

From Shen Qiu’s angle, Zheng Yang’s body stiffened. After a moment, he looked up at Yang Xia in disbelief.

“Where did you get this?”

“You’ve been colder and colder to the kids these past two years. I was worried it would affect them psychologically, so a week ago I took your hair and had this test done.”

She let out a bitter laugh. “I just never imagined you’d do something this inhuman.”

“Whatever is going on between you and Chen Xue, I could ignore it. But Zheng Yang…those are your biological children! Even if you kept doubting it, you raised them for eight years!”

“Eight years—anyone would have feelings by then. The kids called you ‘Dad’ for eight years. How could you bring yourself to cut off your child’s finger?!”

Yang Xia knew her child’s body better than anyone. From the moment the finger was delivered, she knew it belonged to her eldest.

She finally broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.

Zheng Yang stared blankly at the report in his hands, then suddenly slammed his head hard against the interrogation room chair.

Qin Yan rushed forward and grabbed him.

“Garden Community on Yanjiang Avenue. Building One, Unit Two, basement. The key is under the doormat.”

Shen Qiu froze for a split second, then spun around and leapt up, clawing at the door lock before bursting out of the room.

~~~

T/N: Wishing everyone an amazing 2026! Hope you enjoyed the countdown!

2.9k characters to 1.8k words | Translation Time: 1.5 hours