abnabooks Chapter 159 Zoologist
Chapter 159 Zoologist
"Are you the so-called demon hunters? Or are you just underage kids?" The middle-aged man frowned as he looked at Qin Xiaochuan and Guo Shiyi, who had come to see him.
The middle-aged man was Professor Xin from a university and the main source of clues for this mission. So, as soon as they arrived at their destination, they took a taxi directly as instructed by the mission. However, after the two explained their purpose, the professor was clearly very dissatisfied with the arrangements made by Tian Shu Hall.
"Teacher Xin, actually I'm already an adult," Qin Xiaochuan said with an embarrassed smile.
"What's the difference? This is a case that even the police can't solve. You demon hunters are just being reckless. I think you should go back and get someone else to come." Professor Xin seemed a little angry.
"Don't worry, Teacher Xin. Although we're not very old, we're all Silver-level Demon Hunters. Solving this C-level mission is a piece of cake for us," Guo Shiyi said with a smile.
Guo Shiyi's smile clearly had a magical quality; who could bear to blame a cute seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl? After hearing Guo Shiyi's words, the professor visibly calmed down. After a long silence, he sighed and said, "Alright, I'll trust you for now. Don't push yourself too hard; after all, you're still just students. If you encounter any difficulties, quickly find someone else!"
"Don't worry, Teacher Xin, we won't make things difficult for you," the little girl replied obediently. "Could you tell us in detail what happened when you saw the monster?"
Professor Xin's expression turned serious upon hearing this. After a moment of silence, he said, "I know that what I am about to say will be difficult for people to understand, so I must make it clear beforehand that, first of all, I am a scientist myself, so I certainly have a rigorous scientific view and a spirit of seeking truth from facts. Therefore, what I am about to say is based on the objective facts I have seen, without any exaggeration."
Qin Xiaochuan put his hand to his forehead and said, "I think you're overthinking it. Actually, no matter what you say, we'll believe you because that's what we do." Qin Xiaochuan stared intently into the other person's eyes.
Professor Xin stared at him blankly for a while before saying, "Okay, that makes things easier." Then he explained the whole story to Qin Xiaochuan and Guo Shiyi in detail.
Professor Xin is also a zoologist. In addition to teaching at the university, he spends his spare time investigating the habitats and daily behaviors of wild animals. The reason he came to this county was because he discovered traces of a wild animal—a stone marten—on Minggang Mountain outside the county.
The stone marten, also known as the rock marten or civet fox, is a Class II protected animal in China. Due to the value of its fur, it was hunted for a long time before the 80s, and its numbers continued to decline. It is now very difficult to see it in the wild, so it is listed in the Red List of Endangered Animals.
Professor Xin was very excited about the discovery. He rented a house in a nearby town to study the activity patterns and habits of these stone martens in detail over a long period of time. However, not long after he arrived, a mountain area near Minggang Mountain was selected as the site for a large furniture processing factory, and the developer had already started construction there.
"You need to understand that the factory site is very close to the habitat of the stone martens. The development of Minggang Mountain will definitely cause serious damage to the local ecological environment. As a result, the wild stone martens here may become extinct!" Professor Xin said indignantly.
Qin Xiaochuan recalled the scene he saw on the way here and asked, "On the way here, we saw an excavator digging a large flat area in the mountains. Is that the factory site you mentioned?"
"Yes. I contacted the developer about the presence of wild stone martens here, but they are businessmen who have already invested a lot of money to obtain the development permit for this land, and they will not stop the current construction no matter what."
"Didn't you report this situation to the local government?" Qin Xiaochuan asked again.
"It's no use. The developer has the approval from the municipal government, and the county-level leaders don't have the authority to interfere. Besides, as you can see, the economic conditions here aren't very good. It's rare for a developer to be willing to come and invest to boost the local economy, so they don't really want to get involved in this matter," Professor Xin said with a sigh.
Qin Xiaochuan frowned. The image of a flock of eagles circling incessantly flashed through his mind again, and he felt a pang of sadness. Professor Xin seemed to be lost in thought as well and remained silent. For a moment, the living room became quiet.
"Teacher Xin, I wonder what this has to do with the monster you discovered?" Guo Shiyi broke the silence at the right moment.
"How should I put it? It's not that it's related, but it also seems to be related. So I think I should explain the whole story to you."
"What do you mean?" Guo Shiyi looked at the other person in confusion.
"It started like this: about two weeks ago, a few junior high school students from the town went to play in the mountains. But after they came back, one of the students, named Wu Di, started talking nonsense and became completely incoherent. There is a tradition of worshipping Wong Tai Sin in the area. Not only that, there is also a Wong Tai Sin Temple in the town, and people go there every year to burn incense and pray for blessings. So the locals said that the student was possessed by Wong Tai Sin, so the child's parents took him to the Wong Tai Sin Temple to burn incense," Professor Xin said with a wry smile.
"Does it work?" Guo Shiyi asked curiously.
"Of course not, how can you believe such a claim? But the old people in the town don't think so. According to them, someone in the town was possessed before, and as long as they went to the Wong Tai Sin Temple to burn incense and sincerely prayed, they would be cured. So the child's parents had to go to a local villager to ask for the reason."
"What is rural life?" Qin Xiaochuan asked, puzzled.
"They are said to be people who can see things that ordinary people cannot, who can exorcise evil spirits, tell fortunes, and even perform rituals, similar to the shamans who performed rituals in ancient times," Professor Xin explained.
Upon hearing the word "witch," Qin Xiaochuan couldn't help but think of Granny Ding. Could this local woman also be a descendant of the witch clan?
"What does the local dialect say?" he asked quickly, hoping to get some useful information from the witch.
"She said the reason the child's illness was not getting better was because Wong Tai Sin was angry, and the reason Wong Tai Sin was angry was because the developer's factory site in Minggang Mountain was disturbing him."
"So this is the connection you were talking about?" Guo Shiyi asked. "But this is at most strange; no monsters have appeared."
"The monster appeared later," Professor Xin said, adjusting his glasses. "As a scientist, I naturally don't believe in folk tales. I thought there might be something on the mountain that caused the boy's mental illness, so I went up the mountain alone to investigate. That's when I found the monster."
"That was a species I had never seen before. It looked like a large carnivorous mammal, even larger than an adult tiger. It had well-developed canines and carnassials, coarse and long fur, and large, long claws. Based on its appearance, it could be preliminarily identified as a canid."
Professor Xin used some technical terms to describe the monster he had seen in detail, which was a bit unexpected for Qin Xiaochuan. In his impression, people usually gave unclear or even contradictory descriptions of the monsters they saw for the first time. Therefore, he did not expect to get much useful information from him at first.
After the professor finally finished his description, Qin Xiaochuan said awkwardly, "Actually, you didn't need to go into so much detail. We don't really understand many of the terms either."
"It's a professional habit," the professor said, scratching his head sheepishly.
"But you look at it very carefully, as if you were standing in front of it and examining it closely."
"Because I understand animal behavior, turning around and running away when I encounter them will only make me their food. Because I often go to the wild to do research, I carry a self-defense device with me, an ultrasonic jamming device, which scared it away."
Qin Xiaochuan nodded. Luckily, the one who discovered the monster was a zoologist; if it had been an ordinary person, they probably would have been in grave danger.
"Didn't you call the police after you discovered the monster?" Guo Shiyi asked.
"Of course there are, but the local police station has limited manpower, and there are so many mountains in this area, so it is difficult to find clues."
"Besides you, did anyone else see that monster?"
"Two other villagers also claimed to have seen the monster, but they didn't see it as clearly as I did. I had warned the villagers beforehand, so they were more careful when they went up the mountain. They only saw the monster drinking water by the stream from a distance."