By linking my account to the check-in system, I became a leisurely traveler.

Chapter 270 Detective Li Younan (Two Chapters Combined)

After agonizing over it for a day, Brother Long finally changed the owl's name back to Tuantuan.

Cute girls are as difficult to deal with as ever in these aspects, especially innocent and adorable ones.

They may disregard reality, care about your income, and act as an idealistic Sailor Moon for you. They might even fantasize on certain nights about their crush being in danger—for example, being shot by an assassin with an arrow, and then shielding him with their own life, dying in his arms, and ultimately moving themselves to tears.

She is innocent in heart, innocent in body, and innocent in love, but, but... she struggles repeatedly with the decision of naming an owl.

Li Younan naturally didn't care about these trivial matters and said helplessly, "Then why don't you ask it?"

Liu Li's eyes lit up, and she said, "That's a good idea."

Then I walked over and squatted down in front of the owl, and asked it, "So, do you prefer the name Tuantuan or An'an?"

The owl blinked and tilted its head to look at her.

Liu Li read "Tuantuan," and the owl silently turned away.

Liu Li turned to face it again and said "An An," but the owl did not move this time.

Liu Li stood up: "Alright, you can change your name back to Tuantuan. I know you definitely prefer Tuantuan."

Li Younan: "..."

After saying that, Brother Long patted the owl's head.

This was a little incident that happened this morning.

After purchasing supplies in the county town, Li Younan went to a nearby repair shop and bought two spare parts to replace some of the damaged parts from the journey.

They were so busy that it was already noon, so they didn't have time to cook and took Liu Li to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

While we were eating, there were two policemen at the next table.

As soon as they sat down and ordered their food, they started chatting with some complaints.

"Really, I'm so careless, my vacation for the next two days is ruined again."

"I don't know if we can find it at all; we don't have a single clue."

"Did this thief grow wings and fly away?"

Hearing their conversation, Li Younan recalled the strict checks on people and vehicles leaving the county earlier that day and realized that something important had been lost in the town.

In a short while, many thoughts raced through Li Younan's mind.

However, the two policemen did not continue discussing this topic and changed the subject.

Li Younan didn't pay much attention to this matter. After lunch, he went back to his car, rested for a while, and then decided to continue his journey.

Gongbo'gyamda is known as China's Little Switzerland. Of course, there are many places with this name, but it must be said that Gongbo'gyamda, located in Nyingchi, has the most of this charm—meadows, forests, and distant snow-capped mountains, with distinct colors, and many places have the beautiful scenes of the opening of "The Lord of the Rings".

It has to be said that upon arriving here, Li Younan felt that the XZ was really big.

It's important to know that this area is divided into only 6 municipal-level regions, each with its own unique characteristics.

They are currently in the second prefecture-level city of Nyingchi, and Nyingchi's main feature is its low altitude, which can be described as the "Jiangnan of the snowy region".

The car left the county town and continued on to the next stop.

Liu Li sat in the passenger seat, feeling drowsy, knowing they had to keep traveling.

Li Younan drank a cup of coffee to refresh himself. After turning a corner, he saw seven or eight cars stopped in front of him, seemingly blocking the road.

He parked his car behind the last car, and because of its height, he could see over the roof of the car in front of him to get a clear view of the situation—it wasn't a traffic jam, but rather a police cordon had been set up ahead, and some police officers were investigating something.

A black SUV was parked in front of a roadside restaurant. All the police's actions seemed to revolve around the SUV and the restaurant: some police officers were marking distances on the ground with chalk, some were taking notes in a notebook, and the restaurant owner was describing something to the police in detail.

Standing next to the SUV were a middle-aged man wearing glasses and a young man who looked rather unwell.

Li Younan suddenly recalled the conversation he had overheard between the two policemen during dinner.

At this point, because they were stuck here, the tourists in the cars in front got off and gathered around the cordon to ask about the situation.

Li Younan planned to get out of the car to take a look, and Liu Li thought for a moment and followed him.

Next to the cordon, police officers were patiently explaining to the tourists who were stopped: "We are handling a case and need to temporarily control traffic here. We hope you understand."

How long will it take?

"It's hard to say right now; you can choose to take a detour."

Then, complaints came from the tourists.

A middle-aged man who appeared to be a local was clearly unhappy. He didn't dare to argue directly because of his identity as a police officer, but he still muttered a few words: "They don't take good care of their own things. They come here to bother us ordinary people when they lose them."

The policeman frowned and couldn't help but glance at the bespectacled man and the young man over there.

To be honest, they were also helpless because they were not understood by the public despite working so much overtime. Naturally, this resentment eventually fell on the two people who couldn't even take care of their own things.

Upon hearing what the local middle-aged man said, several tourists around him became visibly curious and pressed him for details.

The middle-aged man, already harboring resentment and clearly knowing some inside information, began to loudly recount the events as if no one else was around: "That professor over there, they didn't manage their own materials properly and lost them, and now the entire county's police are searching for those materials for them!"

After hearing what the middle-aged man said, another tourist went up to the police and asked, "What does your looking for something have to do with traffic control? We're in a hurry too, can you let us through first?"

As the road became blocked, more and more cars started to arrive and were stuck along the route.

The police officer was getting impatient and said to his colleague, "If all else fails, let's get the traffic police to come over and set up a checkpoint ahead so the tourists can detour temporarily."

He then explained to the tourists in front of him, "We need to reconstruct the crime scene now, so I'm really sorry, we need to temporarily restrict access here."

Such a response is clearly unconvincing.

Just then, Li Younan, who had been observing the SUV and restaurant over there, suddenly leaned close to the police officer and asked, "Your car and the stolen items are in the same place now, right?"

The police officer glanced at Li Younan: "Sorry, we are on a case and cannot disclose any details."

Li Younan smiled and said, "Perhaps I can offer you some ideas."

Upon hearing Li Younan's words, the policeman raised an eyebrow slightly.

For any police officer, if someone suddenly stands up and says "I can help you solve the case" while they are investigating a case, they will most likely think that the other party is talking nonsense.

Many people believe that "experts are often found among ordinary people," but in fact, police investigations have a mature set of procedures and methods that ordinary people who have never been exposed to them cannot understand at all.

The kind of plot where "the police can't solve a case, but any so-called detective can discover details that the police can't see" usually only exists in detective novels.

Of course, the police would still value those who could provide clues. After thinking for a moment, he asked Li Younan, "Who are you?"

“I am a self-media blogger,” Li Younan said.

"A self-media blogger?" The policeman's voice suddenly rose eight octaves.

But just then, someone in the crowd recognized Li Younan: "Hey, you're Li Younan, right?"

"Hey, it really is Li Younan!"

This caused a commotion, and everyone turned their attention to Li Younan.

Who is Li Younan?

"You don't know Li Younan? He's the guy who solo-killed the bear!"

"Kill a bear?"

"You didn't know? It was the big news that happened in Sonam Village!"

"That's Li Younan, the one with over ten million followers!"

The tourists around were getting a little impatient while waiting, but when they suddenly noticed a super popular internet celebrity next to them, who had just made the news for his act of bravery, they all rushed over to see Li Younan.

With the crowd jostling, Liu Li was pushed to the back, and she looked at Li Younan, who was surrounded by the crowd, with a bewildered expression.

Just then, Li Younan emerged from the crowd, grabbed her hand, and pulled her back.

Seeing that the scene was starting to become chaotic, the police acted decisively to bring Li Younan into the cordon and then further controlled the tourists who were watching the commotion.

At this moment, Losang Tashi, the criminal investigation team leader who was in charge of reconstructing the crime scene, frowned and said impatiently, "Who told you to bring in irrelevant people?"

"He said he had a lead." The young officer was startled and quickly made up a lie. He then looked at Li Younan, as if to say, "You came here by yourself, so don't drag me into this."

Upon hearing that there was a clue, Losang Tashi's eyes lit up as he stared at Li Younan: "You have a clue?"

Li Younan glanced at the mountain behind the restaurant, then at the SUV, and said, "I only have a guess, but I still need to verify it."

In the past two days, Losang Tashi has only slept for two hours in a row while searching for his stolen briefcase, and his eyes are now somewhat bloodshot.

To be honest, he had already thought of every possible solution.

This place is not in the city center and there is no surveillance. The nearby cameras have been checked one by one, and all the vehicles that passed by during the time of the theft have been checked one by one, as have the people passing by.

Fingerprints were left in their car at the time, but after comparison, they did not match any fingerprints in the database—meaning that this was a thief with no prior criminal record.

He even wondered if it was done by foreign spies, which would make things even more complicated.

At this moment, someone suddenly jumped out and said he had a clue. Whether it was true or false, Losang Tashi wanted to hear it.

He invited Li Younan and Liu Li directly into the restaurant. Once they sat down, Li Younan didn't waste any words. Knowing that the police's time was valuable, he asked, "Officer, I would like to ask if there were any fingerprints left on the car at the time?"

Losang Tashi nodded: "Not many, but fingerprints were indeed left, not only fingerprints, but also a little palm print."

They determined it was a theft because they found fingerprints and palm prints on the car. Li Younan said, "Can I take a look?"

Losang Tashi raised an eyebrow slightly: "You want to see the fingerprints? With the naked eye?"

"Yes, I want to test my idea."

Losang Tashi's expression turned serious: "What results can you verify with your naked eyes?"

Li Younan was equally serious: "To prove the rigor of my guess, I need to see the fingerprints."

Losang Tashi paused for a moment, squinted at Li Younan, and then said to the police officer next to him, "Bring me a copy of the suspect's fingerprints and palm prints that we printed earlier."

Soon, the officer took two A4 sheets of paper with printed fingerprints from his briefcase. The processed fingerprints were magnified many times, and the patterns on them could be seen with the naked eye.

Losang Tashi placed his fingerprint on the table in front of Li Younan, then silently lit a cigarette: "See?"

Li Younan picked it up and glanced at it a few times, then a smile began to spread across his face. Before Losang Zhaxi could light the lighter, he said, "It seems that what I guessed was the same."

Li Younan put down the A4 paper with fingerprints and said, "Your investigation went astray from the very beginning. The one who stole the data wasn't human."

The policewoman drinking water nearby almost spat it out: "A ghost?"

……

Losang Tashi suddenly realized something, and his eyelids twitched slightly.

Yeah, why didn't I think of it that way from the beginning!

"These are not human fingerprints or palm prints."

"But... it's from monkeys."

Li Younan was currently explaining things to the police officers.

It's not fair to blame the police for their initial misjudgment, because, generally speaking, monkey fingerprints and palm prints are very similar to human fingerprints on a macroscopic scale, and even to the naked eye, they are exactly the same as human fingerprints.

People who frequently solve monkey theft cases know very well that if a monkey leaves one or two fingerprints in a certain place, you have no way of determining whether it is human or monkey.

Like humans, monkeys' fingerprints are unique and remain unchanged throughout their lives. Moreover, the fingerprints they leave are not on the entire palm, but only in a few scattered places. Without consulting a zoologist, it is easy to mistake them for human fingerprints based on habitual thinking.

Li Younan pointed to the printed fingerprints and said, "Monkey fingerprints and human fingerprints have basically the same basic shapes, such as arch, ring, and whorl."

"However, there are still some subtle differences."

"The first difference is the density and spacing of the fingerprint lines. This is the most obvious difference. The fingerprint lines of monkeys are narrower and denser than those of humans."

"Come on, everyone, take a look. Isn't this area noticeably denser?"

"In addition, the frequency of the appearance of details such as small islands and short rods here is somewhat different from the distribution pattern of human beings."

"Of course, this is quite complicated and cannot be explained in a sentence or two."

"But if we look at palm prints, we can clearly see the difference, because the difference between human palm prints and monkey palm prints is greater than the difference in fingerprints."

"Although monkeys also have palm creases, such as the life line, wisdom line, and heart line, you can see here that the thenar eminence at the base of the palm and the hypothenar eminence on the little finger are very different from the lines on our hands."

“The C-line is missing here, and the three-radial structure appears in a position that is impossible for a human palm, so I can basically conclude that this is a monkey’s fingerprint or palm print.”

After listening to Li Younan's explanation, the police officers subconsciously looked at the fingerprints and palm prints on their hands. Then, after his explanation, they looked at the printed fingerprints of the suspect—

Hmm... I still can't see any difference.

However, Li Younan's certainty inspired the police officers present.

Losang Tashi was somewhat excited after hearing Li Younan's speculation, but he did not lose his composure. Instead, he asked, "Is there any way to verify this?"

Li Younan said, "It's also easy to verify. Just input this fingerprint data into the wildlife database, and we should be able to get a conclusion."

Losang Tashi nodded and instructed his officers to get on with it.

During the period of waiting for the results, Losang Tashi's attitude towards Li Younan improved significantly. After chatting for a while, he learned about Li Younan's heroic deeds, his status as a top-tier livestreamer with millions of followers, a world-class wilderness survival expert, and a national treasure-level cultural relic restoration expert at the Palace Museum.

Even without all these identities, he still felt a deep respect for Li Younan, and naturally, he began to address Li Younan as "Teacher Li".

Liu Li stood silently by, watching the police treat Li Younan as their savior, and felt a little proud.

Meanwhile, the professor, who had lost the documents, was the most agitated.

Two consecutive nights of staying up late without any results had made him increasingly depressed. But then, suddenly things took a turn for the better, and he saw a glimmer of hope. How could he not be excited?

He chatted with Li Younan for a while and handed him his business card.

Not long after, the results came out, and just as Li Younan had said, the fingerprints they collected belonged to the local macaques.

Confirming the final result was undoubtedly exciting, but the smiles on everyone's faces only lasted for a short while before they gradually realized something and their smiles slowly faded.

What lies ahead is an even bigger challenge for everyone.

If someone stole the information, that's easy to handle; finding the person is the same as finding the information.

As long as he doesn't throw the USB drive from his briefcase into a river or the sea, even if he loses or destroys the documents, he can always continue to search for them through clues and recover them using modern technology.

But the monkey stole the things, so how do we find them?
It's important to understand that monkeys behave in a completely different way than humans. The experience of police criminal investigation is not entirely inapplicable to monkeys, but it is basically useless.

Losang Tashi silently lit a cigarette, flicked off the ash halfway through, and his dark lips moved slightly: "Professor Zhang, we can basically draw a conclusion now. If it was the monkey who stole your data, then I hope you will be mentally prepared for the worst."

At this moment, Losang Tashi felt somewhat relieved. In any case, at least he knew who had taken the briefcase, which, in a sense, was an explanation to his superiors.

If it truly cannot be recovered, then it is not their responsibility. After all, the monkey took the briefcase and hid in the mountains; if it simply threw the briefcase into any river, it would be extremely difficult to find.

However, it's not entirely hopeless; at least for now, there's a clear direction.

The next step could be to find an experienced zoologist, preferably one specializing in macaques and familiar with their habits, to cooperate with the police and see if they can make a breakthrough in this area.

The professor's mood, which had just seen a glimmer of hope, suddenly sank again. All he could do was nod and say, "Thank you for your hard work these past few days."

Losang Tashi didn't have much affection for the professor in front of him. After all, it was their negligence in not properly safeguarding such an important item that led to all the subsequent events.

Although the losses were incurred by the research institute, the institute's investors were also some important state-owned enterprises, so in a sense, it was also a loss for the country.

He accepted Professor Zhang's apology without much response, simply nodding casually: "I'll go report the situation to the director first. Um, Danluo, you have a clear idea of ​​the next steps in the investigation, right? Go and assign tasks; I'll head back to the county town first."

After explaining some things, Losang Tashi solemnly approached Li Younan and shook his hand, saying, "This time, we owe you a lot, Teacher Li! If it weren't for your reminder and analysis, we might still be stuck in our own habitual thinking."

Li Younan thought for a moment and said, "Your work may be a bit more complicated next, so let me give you a brief introduction to macaques."

"It's important to know that macaques are not animals that live in only one type of environment. They are one of the most widely distributed and adaptable species of all primates, with habitats ranging from tropical rainforests and temperate forests to mountains, hills, rocky areas, and river valleys."

"Moreover, their foraging areas and ranges are extremely large. Theoretically speaking, with the location where the data was lost as the center, all the wild environments within a radius of more than ten kilometers could be places you need to investigate."

"Moreover, two days have already passed, making it even more troublesome to retrieve the data."

Hearing Li Younan say this, everyone was surprised by his deep understanding of animal habits, but also felt that the chances of finding the items were even slimmer.

However, at this moment, Li Younan changed the subject: "But if you really want to find one... I can give you an idea."

"First of all, macaques do collect, but this collecting behavior is different from that of humans. They do not consciously plan for the future; hoarding is driven by instinct, mainly for exploration and play."

"The briefcases that were taken might be found interesting, and they will be left behind."

"Moreover, there is a very interesting phenomenon in monkey troops: if a monkey possesses a novel gadget, especially one obtained from a human, it can be used as a form of social capital. This has been described in many studies. A higher-ranking monkey will take possession of things it has taken from humans."

"So if we can find the monkeys' habitat, it's possible to retrieve that material."

Upon hearing this, Professor Zhang immediately became excited: "Then, how can we find the monkeys' habitat?"

Li Younan smiled and said, "No matter where macaques live, their survival environment has three core needs: food, water, and a safe place to roost at night."

"Let's start with the first two: water and food."

"To be honest, water is not a problem in this area at all. After all, there is a river flowing through it, and there are also many springs and streams in the forest. So water is not the core factor affecting the macaque's habitat."

"Similarly, food is another factor. There are vast tracts of virgin forest nearby, with food everywhere, so neither of these factors would be a core element that macaques would prioritize as a habitat."

"So next, for the monkeys in this area, the core influencing factor is actually the third one - a safe place to roost overnight."

Everyone present was stunned by what Li Younan said.

Li Younan continued, "I've observed that the forest behind the hotel leads to a canyon, and the steep cliffs, natural caves, and rock crevices are a good place for them to sleep peacefully at night."

"The cliffs of the canyon provide excellent roosting spots for macaques, and the canyon is not barren. Wild fruits, seeds, and tender leaves growing in the forests on both sides, as well as moss, lichen, and insects on the rock walls, all provide them with food."

Then Li Younan said seriously, "However, there is another point to emphasize: the macaque's short-lived collecting instinct is not long-lasting. They will only maintain their interest in an item for two or three days at most, and then they will discard it casually."

"And if you just throw it away... well, you'll have to search for it like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"So if we're going to look for it, time waits for no one, we have to take immediate action."

Li Younan's analysis only fueled the despair of everyone present.

According to Li Younan, to recover the lost data, it would be best to find a rock climber, a zoologist who understands wildlife, and a geology expert to assist in finding the data, so that it could be perfectly matched with the monkey troops in the canyons and forests of Linzhi.

This is not a simple search, but a duel between masters that blends into the natural landscape.

Professor Zhang hesitated for a moment before saying to Li Younan, "Teacher Li... could you spare a day or two to go back into the mountains and give us some more guidance?"

"Of course, don't worry, I definitely won't let you waste your time!"

(End of this chapter)