Su Zhisheng looked at the rat snake, its body hidden among the rubble, only its head exposed, and his heart pounded like a drum.
To be honest, the moment he chose veterinary medicine as his major, he knew there would be animals that weren’t exactly cute—some even dangerous.
Snakes, whether in commercial farming or the pet trade, held a significant place. In the wild, they were everywhere, across the country and around the globe.
Whether as a veterinarian or as a special consultant for the police, seeking clues from animals, Su Zhisheng knew he couldn’t avoid snakes forever.
He took a deep breath and slowly stepped closer to the pile of rocks.
Technically, he could have talked from where he was standing. But he wanted to get nearer, to see more clearly, to push past his fear.
The rat snake, also known as the beauty rat snake, had yellow-and-black patterned scales that gleamed coldly in the dim light. It looked quite frightening. The snake flicked its red forked tongue, yet its voice was surprisingly gentle.
“Hiss, most humans scream and run when they see me. You’re pretty brave—courage worth praising. This snake admires you.”
The snake’s gaze drifted past Su Zhisheng and landed on the owl perched in the treetop.
“Anyway, I wouldn’t dare stick my body out. Otherwise, that owl—who had a mouse snack yesterday—would be having ‘snake jerky’ today.”
Su Zhisheng: “…”
So the whole “I missed out on the mouse because I was watching the drama” thing was just a face-saving excuse.
A slip of the tongue, and the real reason came out. With a natural predator right there, what else could the rat snake do but play dead and watch? It had to wait until the owl was full before it could safely hunt—otherwise, it was the meal.
“Hiss, I’ll tell you everything I saw. But this snake wants meat—lots of meat. So much meat I can’t move…”
A greedy snake, speaking its mind.
Su Zhisheng smiled, guessing the snake hadn’t eaten well last night.
“I called around earlier, and I don’t have much jerky left. I’ll give you all of it. Tomorrow, I’ll bring more food—enough to fill you up.”
“Hiss, deal. A promise is a promise.”
The snake lifted its head and looked toward the owl. “You’ll have to bring the jerky to my mouth. I don’t dare reach my body out.”
Su Zhisheng: “…”
What a coward. What a survivor.
Staring at that triangular snake head, Su Zhisheng felt like he might spontaneously combust!
Gritting his teeth, he held the jerky out to the snake’s mouth.
Luckily, snakes swallow their food whole, so he didn’t have to hold the jerky there slowly feeding it—otherwise, that would have been pure torture…
After a few moments of feeding, though the jerky wasn’t all gone yet, the pressure in his chest slowly began to ease.
The tension on his face gradually faded, replaced by a lighter expression. He even found himself feeling a strange sense of satisfaction, like feeding a pet.
Not far away, Xing Tianwei stood silently, never once interfering.
Xing Tianwei wasn’t afraid of snakes at all. He could have helped Su Zhisheng with the feeding. But he didn’t. Because this wasn’t a game. As long as he ensured Su Zhisheng’s safety, that was enough.
Whatever challenges Su Zhisheng had to face, Xing Tianwei wouldn’t step in.
It wasn’t coldness—it was trust.
“Hiss…” The snake finally spoke after finishing all the jerky. “I’ll tell you. Last night, the moon was bright. That bald, Mediterranean-head of his reflected the light. In the woods by the lake, he looked like a little night-light.”
“Pfft…” Su Zhisheng couldn’t help but laugh.
“This snake couldn’t miss him even if it tried. He was under the third big tree to the right of the owl, digging a hole and burying something.”
The right side was closer to the lake, and the soil there was more damp.
For a man who had just committed a crime of passion and didn’t have proper digging tools, this spot was clearly the best choice.
“I remember it was two phones. If this snake had hands to play with them, I’d have dug them up myself and had some fun.”
“Thank you, little snake. The clue you gave is very useful. You’ve been a huge help.”
Unlike the impulsive killer, the police had already guessed he would either bury the phones in a hole or dump them in the river. That was why they had come prepared with digging tools and rain boots.
After all, phones can be sold for money. If the killer had just tossed them casually, some passing fisherman might have found them. Burying things in the dirt or sinking them in the water was the smarter move.
Su Zhisheng and Xing Tianwei arrived at the spot the rat snake had indicated and dug up the phones in no time.
Without proper tools, the killer hadn’t been able to bury the phones very deep, which made the search easier.
Su Zhisheng hastily wiped the wet mud off the surface of the phones. “Now it’s up to our colleagues in forensics.”
Modern phones have strong waterproofing. After cleaning them up, there was a good chance they could be repaired and powered back on.
Inside the police station’s interrogation room, the questioning of the hotel owner, the Zhang family, had already concluded.
Next up was Hu Xiuchun’s interrogation in connection with the case.
“Do you recognize this face?”
A photo was slid across the table. Hu Xiuchun chose to lift her gaze and look at the police instead.
In the interrogation room sat the aloof Xing Tianwei. Beside him, the officer in charge of questioning, Zhang Zhengyang, had a kindly face but an extremely stern expression.
More critically, seated next to the two of them was Su Zhisheng, who wasn’t in police uniform.
“Why is an unrelated person sitting in on a police interrogation? I want a lawyer!” Hu Xiuchun’s emotions flared up at the sight of her enemy before her.
“Settle down!” Zhang Zhengyang barked coldly, instantly extinguishing the flicker of courage she had just mustered.
“He’s our department’s special consultant. He has some knowledge of this case and will provide input on the statement.”
In other words, there were things the police might not know to ask about. But Su Zhisheng was different.
Hu Xiuchun’s heart sank on the spot.
Even though she had made a point of getting her beauty sleep last night for the engagement banquet, she now looked haggard and utterly exhausted.
The fear of being abandoned by everyone, the terror of going to prison… it was enough to drive a pampered socialite mad.
“I—I don’t recognize the person in the photo,” Hu Xiuchun said quietly, still grasping at straws.
Zhang Zhengyang pushed another photo toward her. “Then you must at least recognize Wang Hao. We’ve already arrested him in Hong Kong. He says everything was done on your orders.”
Su Zhisheng smiled, deliberately provoking his stepmother.
“I’m the one who helped catch Wang Hao. Guess what I already know?”
In truth, listening to animals’ thoughts didn’t unlock all the information. The key was still to break through Hu Xiuchun’s psychological defenses and get her to confess voluntarily. Only then could they obtain the most complete case file.
“Have you been following me? Or did you secretly install something on my phone? Officer, I want to report this.” Hu Xiuchun ground her teeth in hatred, wanting nothing more than to lunge at him and tear him apart.
“We’ve looked into the source of the information. There are no issues with evidence collection violations.”
With that single sentence, all of Hu Xiuchun’s remaining hopes were dashed.
She knew the game was over. Instantly, she went limp in her chair.
Fearful of the consequences, tears streamed down her face. Even with the man she hated sitting right there watching her fall apart, she couldn’t control her breakdown.
But even as she spoke, her words remained a mix of truth and lies.
“Officer, the Zhang family put me up to all of this. Before we fell out over Zhou Jiale’s death, I was Mrs. Zhang’s subordinate…”
Hu Xiuchun shifted the blame immediately, desperately hoping the Zhang family would take full responsibility for everything.
“I spend money freely, but I only get 30,000 yuan a month. That was fine when I was younger, but now that I’m older, after a full round of beauty treatments, I have almost nothing left…”
“I met Mrs. Zhang at a banquet. After we got to know each other, she told me about their hotel’s prostitution business…”
Hu Xiuchun claimed she was confessing honestly, but in reality, she was working hard to downplay her own culpability.
The Zhang family was no better—they were busy pushing the blame onto their partners.
When it came to their own crimes, they used clever phrasing to minimize the damage. But when it came to the misdeeds of others, they were all too eager to spill everything, hoping to use their “cooperation” to get a reduced sentence.
In the end, the police synthesized the testimonies of multiple individuals along with the collected evidence to reconstruct the truth of what had happened.
The Zhang family had been using their hotel and their connections within wealthy circles to secretly run an illegal organized prostitution operation!
After expanding their hotel chain business to G Province, they needed a steady supply of young, attractive men and women. So they set their sights on the Su family, who ran an entertainment company. Mrs. Zhang began deliberately cultivating a relationship with Hu Xiuchun.
However, Su Jingye was a superficially devoted scoundrel. He kept a photo of his first wife hanging in the living room year-round, but that never stopped him from living a life of debauchery. Hu Xiuchun had been married to him for years without bearing a child, yet she wasn’t cast aside. She appeared deeply favored, but in reality, she couldn’t influence a single decision of Su Jingye’s.
Looking to earn more spending money, Hu Xiuchun started scouting for underutilized bronze-tier agents within the company and quickly teamed up with Wang Hao.
Good-looking men and women who applied for jobs at the Su family’s company but weren’t selected would be lured by Wang Hao into signing with shell companies. Then, the companies would leave them idle, wasting their youth, before using exorbitant penalty clauses to coerce them into illegal activities.
That said, the two were also afraid of being discovered by Su Jingye, so they didn’t dare target too many rejected applicants.
But Hu Xiuchun had already tasted the profits and naturally wanted to expand the business quickly. She proactively approached Mrs. Zhang for investment and opened a beauty salon, aiming to squeeze even more money out of these attractive young people.
Liu Meiling, the victim in the hotel murder and body-hiding case, entered the trap around this time.
To make more money, Hu Xiuchun kept looking for ways to increase her workforce. As it happened, preparations for the fake young master’s engagement banquet were underway. Hu Xiuchun recruited good-looking people to work as waitstaff while simultaneously picking out new victims from among the rejects.
What she didn’t expect was that Zhang Weilong, during an argument, had picked up an object and struck someone, accidentally killing Zhou Jiale.
The unruly boyfriend Zhou Jiale had been introduced by Hu Xiuchun. The marriage alliance partner who discovered the body and reported the crime had also been introduced by Hu Xiuchun. As a result, Mrs. Zhang came to despise Hu Xiuchun and angrily pulled her investment out of the beauty salon!
Hu Xiuchun had been hiding this side business from the Su family all along and couldn’t ask them for help. So her only option was to lay off staff at the beauty salon to cut costs. Her low budget attracted an underqualified surgeon, which ultimately led to an accident at the salon.
Two incidents in a row made Hu Xiuchun temporarily suspend her prostitution operations.
Yes, despite the Zhang family’s hostility toward Hu Xiuchun, their collaboration on the prostitution business never stopped. After all, no one says no to money. Mrs. Zhang’s withdrawal from the beauty salon was mainly because she didn’t want to share profits—she planned to open her own salon anyway.
Liu Meiling, crushed by her high cosmetic surgery loan, argued with Wang Hao but still didn’t receive permission to resume “work.”
Meanwhile, the Zhang family, who had a grudge against Hu Xiuchun, secretly started poaching her people. Liu Meiling, driven to desperation by her loan debt, eventually agreed.
Soon after, she successfully entered the hotel and completed a transaction with a client.
But the original cosmetic surgery loan contract had been signed by Liu Meiling after being deceived by Hu Xiuchun’s people. The promised “star-making” lead role turned out to be a shoddy, under-the-table production by Hu Xiuchun with very low pay. Filming lasted two days, and the project never even aired.
Liu Meiling barely earned any money. She had wanted to find a legitimate job to repay her debt, but the income from honest work wasn’t nearly enough to cover the loan payments. In the end, driven by her cosmetic surgery debt, she was pushed by Wang Hao down the irreversible path of prostitution.
The Zhang family didn’t have a copy of that loan contract and had no idea that Liu Meiling’s payments were already overdue.
Back when Hu Xiuchun hadn’t yet banned Liu Meiling from taking clients, she hadn’t gotten many customers because her looks weren’t particularly outstanding. Now, after more than two weeks without any work, her debt had ballooned to a suffocating level!
With no way out, Liu Meiling secretly recorded a video and tried to blackmail the killer into paying her off. A confrontation erupted, and in a fit of rage, the killer strangled her—ultimately leading to tragedy.
At this point in the investigation, the basic facts of the case were clear.
With the evidence found at the hotel, witness testimonies, and the crucial phone that Su Zhisheng helped recover, the police continued digging deeper, preparing to round up everyone involved in the organized prostitution ring.
Online, netizens and fans who had been anxiously waiting for new photos from the fake young master’s engagement banquet were all wondering if something had happened.
Just then, someone suddenly dropped a bombshell.
The adopted son had stormed the engagement banquet with his people. The guests had only shown up, chatted for a bit, and before the ceremony could even begin, the engagement banquet was forced to end.
In an instant, the internet exploded.