I raise furry animals and fly them to my motherland.

Chapter 323 The Emo Bird
Upon hearing this, Qi Xiao narrowed his eyes, his sharp gaze piercing through the twilight.

Chen Su chuckled, his well-defined fingers tightening on the steering wheel, the pale blue veins faintly visible on the back of his hand: "I feel we're not far from being criminal suspects."

The navigation sign for "Jinsha Resort 2km" stood out prominently in the night. Xu Ying tilted her head, a look of confusion in her eyes: "Could that birdwatcher be staying at the resort?"

Chen Su smiled slightly: "Very likely."

His voice was firm: "There aren't many places to stay and eat in the desert."

Xu Ying was no stranger to the Sands Resort. The last time she rescued an Afghan hound that suddenly went berserk there, it caused quite a stir and attracted a large crowd. It turned out that the nanny, who was surrounded by the dog, had switched the child.

The gerbil's eyes lit up when it heard the word "resort": [This place is great! Lots of my family members and close relatives will be here!]
A sharp glint flashed in Xu Ying's eyes: "Let's go, let's go check out the resort."

As the sun sets, the resort gradually comes alive. Tourists stroll in twos and threes along the streets, enjoying the cool evening air.

Xu Ying squatted down and gestured to the grizzly leader: "Remember, the target is a short-haired man around 175cm tall wearing a jade safety buckle and diamond earrings, riding a red motorcycle."

She took out her phone and showed the picture of the drone prototype that Qi Xiao had found to the gerbil: "Also, have your friends help look for the drone wreckage, focusing on places like trash cans."

The gerbil leader stood up and waved his little paw: [Gerbil Special Forces, move out!] In the blink of an eye, a group of gerbils scattered and disappeared into the crowd.

Qi Xiao stroked his chin and analyzed, "This person's features are indeed very obvious, but if we ask around, we might alert him." He unfolded a map of the resort, "There are four entrances and exits here, we can start with the surveillance footage."

Chen Su nodded and added, "Based on the time we encountered the white crane, which was 3:48 PM on the 9th, the murderer fled on a red motorcycle. If he came to the resort, the security cameras at the entrance would definitely have captured it."

“Wait a minute,” Xu Ying suddenly thought of something, “Bai He’s wound is still very fresh, and the injury occurred no more than two hours ago. It takes at least 3.5 hours to get from the scene of the crime to the resort by desert motorcycle.”

Chen Su immediately understood: "Then the monitoring time range can be locked between 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm that day."

“There are three of us, and four entrances and exits,” Xu Ying was thinking about how to allocate tasks.

Chen Su pointed to the bottom of the map: "The south entrance is the farthest, so we can eliminate it for now." His finger moved between the other three entrances. "The remaining three, shall we each take charge of one?"

After assigning tasks, the three went to the resort's security control room.

In the dimly lit monitoring room, more than a dozen screens simultaneously flashed real-time images from different entrances and exits.

Xu Ying sat in front of the monitoring screen at the east entrance, her fingers rapidly scrolling the mouse wheel, watching the vehicles entering and leaving at double speed.

The sky outside the window had completely darkened, and the air conditioning in the monitoring room was whistling. After staring at the screen for half an hour straight, Xu Ying rubbed her sore eyes, and the passing vehicles on the screen began to blur before her eyes. She had to pause the video and take a deep breath.

She turned to look at Chen Su, who was focused on reviewing the surveillance footage: "Captain Chen, do you guys always work this hard when reviewing surveillance footage? Just these three hours of recordings are making my head spin."

Upon hearing this, Chen Su turned around, a gentle smile appearing on his young and handsome face. The cold light from the monitor screen reflected on his sharply defined profile, making his features appear exceptionally deep.

He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Actually, it's not so bad. We've been training for a long time. Besides," he pointed to his eyes, "we criminal investigators all have built-in 'human scanners'." His tone was relaxed and humorous, but the movements of adjusting the surveillance footage were still professional and efficient.

Xu Ying noticed that even when he was joking, his eyes never left the screen, and his slender fingers would occasionally tap on the keyboard, marking suspicious time points.

“But to be honest,” Chen Su leaned forward slightly, looking at Xu Ying intently, “we were able to pinpoint the timeframe so quickly thanks to your professional judgment. Without the timeline of the white crane’s injury that you provided, we might still be searching for a needle in a haystack.”

His bright eyes sparkled with genuine admiration.

About half an hour passed.

"Found it!" Qi Xiao suddenly exclaimed in a low voice in front of the surveillance camera at the north entrance.

The three immediately gathered around and saw a young man riding a red motorcycle into the resort, with muddy marks from the wetlands on the motorcycle wheels.

The time displayed is 5:23 PM on the 9th.

Chen Su paused the monitor screen, pointed to the red motorcycle on the screen, and said, "Now we've figured out the model and style of the motorcycle." He tapped his fingers lightly on the table, his eyes focused on analyzing the details of the image.

Xu Ying nodded: "I'll go ask our little animal friends for help again."

She strode out of the security center and took out a silver whistle from her pocket, which she used to communicate with gerbils.

As soon as the whistle blew, a round-headed gerbil poked its head out from the nearby bushes, its beady black eyes darting around alertly.

“The suspect entered the resort from the north gate,” Xu Ying said to the gerbil in a low voice as she crouched down. “We can narrow down our search. Let’s go to the north gate entrance and ask your rat relatives first.”

As she spoke, she took a few nuts out of her bag.

The little gerbil took the nut, its tiny paws deftly holding the food. It quickly nodded its fluffy head twice, then wiggled its round little bottom and darted into the grass to inform its companions.

Xu Ying was just about to return to the control room when she was suddenly drawn by a burst of chirping birds. She looked in the direction of the sound and vaguely heard:
Should we stay here or not?
A bird asked in a puzzled tone.

"We should maintain our mysterious image; I think it's better to leave," the other replied, feigning profundity.

Xu Ying tiptoed closer to the source of the sound and discovered four oddly shaped birds hidden behind the bushes.

They have the body size of crows, but their heads are pale yellow, their wings are edged with black and white feathers, and their sandy yellow feathers on their bellies are particularly striking in the sunset.

What's most eye-catching is the tuft of black feathers sticking up high on their heads, resembling a black rooster comb, swaying gently in the breeze.

[Brothers, the food at this resort is amazing, it's a real gem!] A ground jay flapped its wings excitedly.

"[Yeah, yeah,]" its companion chimed in, "[They can get a full meal just by rummaging through the trash can.]"
[However, I'm still a little afraid of those humans.]
The third ground jay shrank its neck. [Many people were taking pictures of us with large black tubes.]
(End of this chapter)