Animal Detective

Chapter 130 The time doesn’t match up

"Then there's a problem."

Ding Yuwei put down her phone and said, "Think about it, on the 23rd, Wang Lei was sent to the hospital, saying that he had been running a fever for several days, which means he had already entered the acute phase of the illness."

"Assuming the onset of the illness was on the 20th, there was still an incubation period before that. Wang Lei had a wound on his chin, which was relatively close to his head. Let's say he had a ten-day incubation period, meaning he was bitten before October 10th."

"That means if the cat was the source of the infection, it would have already been sick and contagious by October 10th. And the window period for cats to become infected is only two or three days, after which they die immediately."

"If we calculate it this way, then the cat should have been dead for about 15 days. In this weather, it would decompose a little slower, but it certainly wouldn't be like this now."

Judging from the state of decay, the cat in front of me has probably been dead for less than a week.

"That's right, the timing doesn't match."

Shen Xin nodded in agreement and said, "If this cat infected Wang Lei, it should have died long ago. The fact that it only died a few days ago can only be explained by one thing: the cat went through a longer incubation period after being infected, not 10 days."

"Today is the 27th. Assuming the cat died a week ago, and then going back three or four days to the infectious window, the cat started to show symptoms on the 16th. Only then was it infectious and able to infect Wang Lei."

"So this cat is not the source of infection; it was also infected, but it went through a longer incubation period."

Zhao Shouchuan gestured for the two to speak slowly, as his mind was a little foggy.

Zhao Tianxing understood and said, "In other words, there is a third source of infection, which infected both the cat and Wang Lei at the same time."

"The key is that there is no problem. The dog is fine and has been vaccinated. Zhang Qingpeng is also fine. He even got a rabies vaccine last month. It's not like Wang Lei took the cat out for a walk and they both got bitten by a stray dog."

"Cats don't need to go out for walks."

Shen Xin nodded, "That makes sense."

Their eyes met, and it seemed Zhao Tianxing's intuition was right; Wang Lei's death was indeed a bit strange.

Zhao Shouchuan's mind was still a little confused, but he understood that there was a problem.

He felt there was a problem at the time.

"So what do we do now?" Zhao Shouchuan asked.

Zhao Tianxing thought for a moment and said, "Ask Zhang Qingpeng again to confirm when the cat went missing."

Shen Xin nodded and then said, "Also, what about Wang Lei's body? The wound on his chin should still be there, right? Can we compare it with the husky's teeth to see if it was this husky that bit him?"

"Furthermore, I feel it's necessary to investigate Zhang Qingpeng to see if he has any disputes with Wang Lei."

Zhao Shouchuan immediately said, "They should have been colleagues before, working at the same media company, and then they both changed jobs. Zhang Qingpeng is still working at a media company now, and it seems he's doing live streaming, just like Wang Lei. But Wang Lei went out on his own."

Whether there is a specific conflict is unclear.

Shen Xin knew about Wang Lei because he was involved in short videos and live streaming.

She also gained a lot of followers because of her beauty.

"Have you asked the neighbors?" Shen Xin asked.

The walls of these resettlement houses are thin, so any noise can be heard going up or down the stairs.

Zhao Shouchuan said, "I did ask, but only about the dog and Wang Lei's schedule. I didn't ask if the two of them had any conflicts."

I didn't know about this situation at the time.

"I'll go ask."

Ding Yuwei immediately replied.

Zhao Tianxing said, "Then I'll go see Zhang Qingpeng."

As he spoke, he asked Zhao Shouchuan for Zhang Qingpeng's phone number and the hotel's location.

After the two left, Shen Xin asked Zhao Shouchuan to tell him about Wang Lei's daily routine while he turned on the computer in the bedroom.

The computer was turned on without a password, and I was directly taken to the desktop.

A bunch of icons.

There are many game icons, as well as some commonly used editing software for streamers.

There were no materials on the desktop.

Shen Xin, as is his own habit, would put all the case files and some commonly used forms on his desk, almost filling it up completely.

But it's also possible that Wang Lei has a habit of storing things in a unified way.

The recycle bin is empty.

Open My Computer, there are three drives.

I checked his D drive and found a lot of material related to his work as a live streamer and the videos he made.

There is also a folder for study materials.

When opened, it was completely empty.

Shen Xin exited and opened other files to view.

There is a lot of material, which has been categorized by year.

The earliest was in 15, meaning he started working in this field in 15. Shen Xin took a quick look.

Back in 15, he seemed to be a game streamer, playing League of Legends.

Then in 16, I started doing more content, including game reviews, lifestyle sharing, and even mukbang (eating broadcasts). I also started an account on Bilibili.

Starting this year, he seems to have focused on short videos, opening several accounts at the same time, including local restaurant reviews, food sharing, gaming, and funny video sharing.

"Old Zhao, where's his phone?" Shen Xin asked.

Zhao Shouchuan said, "He has several cell phones, all of which he gave to his parents."

Shen Xin nodded, then he would need to meet his parents later.

Thinking about it, Shen Xin took out his phone and searched for the account "Wang Paofu".

The account is still active.

It still has 43 followers.

Then, pinned to the top is the viral video of Da Mei training Black Panther.

He has since deleted the video of himself apologizing via screen recording.

Then Shen Xin unexpectedly discovered that on September 8th, after dealing with him, he started updating videos again.

The story is about finding a beautiful calico cat unexpectedly in the neighborhood.

This must be the cat that died on the balcony.

Watching the video, Shen Xin realized that this cat looked remarkably like Da Mei.

It's likely that Wang Lei couldn't bear to give up Da Mei's popularity and fame, so he managed to get a cat that closely resembled Da Mei.

Surprisingly, his fabricated scripts were actually quite effective; the videos garnered thousands of likes, some even tens of thousands.

The last video was posted on October 18th, which matches the time he fell ill around the 20th.

On his computer, Shen Xin also found footage of the calico cat.

However, his hard drive is a bit full.

Both drive D and drive E are 1TB, and drive D is almost full now.

Shen Xin adjusted the folder size.

I discovered that the D drive doesn't quite match.

His video footage is only a little over 700 GB, and games and software also take up a lot of space, but there's still a shortfall of almost 100 GB.

Learning materials?

Shen Xin frowned slightly and glanced at the size of the study materials file. Sure enough, it was 87GB.

But there was nothing inside.

That's obviously hidden.

Upon checking the hidden/shown section, well, it really is study material.

Zhao Shouchuan then finished explaining Wang Lei's daily routine.

In big cities, neighbors tend to be less friendly, so his neighbors didn't pay much attention to Wang Lei.

I have seen him take his dog out for a walk often in the morning, and sometimes in the evening as well.

Then I became a live streamer, managed my own account, and had very flexible working hours, not knowing when I would go out to film videos.

But recently, he has been frequently filming videos in the green belt downstairs.

When walking the dog, we usually walk along the perimeter of the residential area, and sometimes we go a few hundred meters further to a sports park.

Many people from the neighborhood also go for a walk there.

However, the CDC searched the vicinity but did not find any stray dogs infected with rabies.

Just then, Ding Yuwei returned.

“We made a discovery. The downstairs resident said that it was around the middle of last month, but he didn’t remember the exact day. He heard them arguing upstairs. It was quite loud. It should be Wang Lei and Zhang Qingpeng arguing and having a conflict.”

Zhao Shouchuan immediately said, "Then Zhang Qingpeng is becoming increasingly suspicious."

Shen Xin nodded.

Zhao Shouchuan continued, "The key point is that Wang Lei died of rabies, which has nothing to do with Zhang Qingpeng."

This wasn't someone stabbed to death or poisoned.

Rabies virus is something you can't get your hands on on a daily basis, and even if you did, it would be almost impossible to infect a stranger with it.

You can't just bring a sick dog and have it deliberately bite Wang Lei.

Most importantly, why didn't Wang Lei go to the hospital to get vaccinated immediately after coming into contact with the sick dog?

(End of this chapter)