Animal Detective

Chapter 292 - 245: The Evil of the Human Heart, More Treacherous Than Mountains and Rivers (2)

The stench of blood was so overpowering it went straight to his head, making him want to gag.

Chen Chao pinched his nose, completely baffled. "Why are they killing cats? And look, it seems like they’re deboning them."

Beneath the workstation sat a plastic basket, piled high with bones that had been stripped of their meat.

Shen Xin shook his head. He wanted to know, too.

’Torturing animals for sport? Surely not.’

’An old hustler like Gu Shaolong would only do this for money.’

Chen Chao gestured to Shen Xin, signaling that they should leave. The stench of blood was too much for him.

The seven of them were taken back to the Wutang District station.

They were interrogated through the night.

Cai Huafeng personally interrogated Gu Shaolong.

"Bought them from overseas."

Gu Shaolong was extremely cooperative, answering every question thrown at him.

He was probably well aware that once the police had him in their sights, there was no hiding anything. Especially not after a surprise raid had yielded a mountain of evidence. He knew he’d have to talk sooner or later.

"I traffick cats and dogs over to Lingxi, you know? Through that, I met some people and bought the guns from overseas through them."

"As for who exactly, I have a business card in my office. A local boss over there. I heard him say he’s smuggled a lot into the country because rich people like to play with this stuff."

"If you want to arrest him later, I can cooperate."

"Captain Cai, this counts as a voluntary confession and meritorious service. You have to put that on my record."

Gu Shaolong pointed at Cai Huafeng, as if to say they should keep things straight.

In the observation room, Xiong Yongjian snorted softly, telling an officer to take it down and investigate immediately.

This was a surprise raid, so a lot of evidence was still missing. They had to investigate while they interrogated.

In the interrogation room, Cai Huafeng gave a weary nod, held up a photo, and asked about the slaughter room.

Gu Shaolong seemed to guess what Cai Huafeng was about to ask and quickly cut him off. "Captain Cai, don’t get the wrong idea. All that blood is from cats. Murder is a capital offense. I don’t do that kind of thing."

"As for why we kill the cats... Captain Cai, have you ever heard of a medicinal ingredient called leopard bone?"

Cai Huafeng frowned slightly, motioning for him to continue.

Gu Shaolong leaned back in his chair, a casual look on his face. "I only found out people did this a couple of years ago. Heard it from someone by chance."

"You know how they used to make tiger bone wine? And use leopard parts, too. But now those are protected animals, so you can’t get them. Then I heard you can use cat bones to pass them off as leopard bones."

"They’re all felines, you see. Some pharmaceutical companies buy this stuff. I only slowly got into this business channel."

"But the demand isn’t huge, and it’s a lot of trouble. You have to process them, and only a few bones are usable."

"My main business is still selling the meat. Some people use cat meat to pass it off as other meat products. Anyway, since someone was buying, I just did it on the side. A little extra income, you know?"

His tone was light and nonchalant; everything out of his mouth was about business.

In the observation room, Xiong Yongjian’s expression grew even more grim. At first, he had thought it was a simple case of illegally buying and possessing air rifles, along with stealing cats and dogs.

Only now did he realize there were so many other twists and turns.

Just selling cat meat and bones alone involved illegal slaughter and the sale of uninspected meat products—all of it criminal activity.

Shen Xin was frowning deeply as well.

Inside, Gu Shaolong continued, "But that’s all small money, and it’s a hassle. Those strays are smart, you know. We put out traps everywhere, but we don’t catch many in a day."

"The main business is selling to those people who stage ’rescues,’ do livestreams, and act pathetic to get sympathy."

"Captain Cai, don’t think I’m heartless. They’re much worse than me. Sometimes, I feel like I’ve already made the cats miserable enough, but then they take them and manage to make them even more miserable."

"And all this stuff, to be honest, I learned it from them."

Cai Huafeng sneered. "Listening to you, it sounds like you’re the one who’s been wronged."

Gu Shaolong waved a hand dismissively. "No, I never said that. Truth be told, I look down on them, too."

"They’re not like me. I know I’m a piece of shit, a bad seed. Everything I do is illegal."

"But them? They come up with these twisted ideas, but they’re too scared to break the law themselves, too afraid of getting locked up. By the way, did you know?"

"I remember when I was just getting into this line of work, I heard a story about this one cat. Someone used it to film one of those rescue videos."

"They livestreamed it, got people to donate money, and after they were done making their cash, they sold the cat to someone else."

"The next person did the same thing. And they don’t even have the guts to abuse the cats themselves. They’re cowards, so they only dare to buy already-injured ones from people like me."

"They act like it has nothing to do with them. This one cat, from what I heard, passed through five different hands."

He held up one hand, waving it with a look of contempt. "It was ’rescued’ five separate times. In the end, if the cat hadn’t finally died because it couldn’t take the abuse anymore, it probably would have been ’rescued’ a few more times."

"Tell me, what kind of scum are these people?"

Cai Huafeng’s brow furrowed, and he said in a low voice, "So they don’t dare to do anything illegal, but you do. Is that it?"

Gu Shaolong nodded. "That’s right. I’m the bad guy. They have a demand, so I’m the one who does the illegal stuff."

He said it with an air of shameless justification.

Watching this, Xiong Yongjian’s frown deepened. He spoke into the microphone, telling Cai Huafeng to ask Gu Shaolong for the specifics of his operation.

Common stray cats and dogs were one thing. Gu Shaolong himself had said he placed traps everywhere.

Besides, they were strays. No one would notice if they went missing.

But Wang Huiquan had confessed that they also had a "high-end" business: catching purebred cats and dogs.

In the cages at the farm, large numbers of purebred cats and dogs were being held.

There were records in the ledgers as well.

Some of the ones in better condition were sold all over the country. The prices weren’t cheap, either—often a thousand or more, sometimes even several thousand.