Chapter 81: The Detective Squad’s Pinecone Mystery

Chapter 81: Chapter 81: The Detective Squad’s Pinecone Mystery

"Strange, why are there pinecones here again?"

While cleaning up recently, Liang He had noticed quite a few pinecones scattered in the corners of the animal dormitory. They were especially concentrated near the head of her bed. Almost every day, new ones would appear, which made her rather curious.

"You don’t think some little squirrel is gifting these to you, do you?" Hoder leaned in, just as curious, and began guessing who the secret gift-giver could be.

Doctor Lan, who had just come over to deliver medicine to the Little Black Snake, overheard their confusion and pondered for a moment.

"It shouldn’t be from a squirrel."

"Why not?"

Like a miniature detective squad, the three began to deduce the mystery of the pinecones.

"It’s winter right now," Lan Zhuo explained. "For squirrels, pinecones are a winter necessity—their hope for survival. How could they easily give them away?" He understood animal habits much better than the other two did. For a squirrel to give so many pinecones to a human during winter was highly unnatural behavior. "Besides, several large beasts are living in this animal dormitory. Do you really think a squirrel would have the guts to come in here just to deliver pinecones?"

It would essentially be treating itself as a snack, personally delivering itself right into the mouths of the predators.

"Therefore, there’s only one possibility for these inexplicably appearing pinecones."

Following Liang He’s gaze, Hoder and Lan Zhuo turned their attention to the fluffy animals, who were currently sprawled out fast asleep in their respective single enclosures.

When the animals slept during the day, Liang He was usually not around, so they didn’t crowd together on a single bed—except for the Silver Moon Wolf and her pups.

Liang He sighed deeply. She didn’t know which unlucky little squirrel had its nest ransacked and its nuts stolen by one of her mischievous brats.

"How about we check tonight—"

"Shh!" Liang He swiftly clamped her hand over Hoder’s mouth. Fortunately, he was sitting down; otherwise, she would have had to jump to reach him. "Let’s chat privately on the Light Brain."

Noticing a certain fluffy animal pricking up its ears to eavesdrop, Liang He pointed at her Light Brain. She felt that some of the animals had been getting increasingly clever lately. It was almost as if they could understand human speech, so she had to keep her guard up.

Liang He created a private group chat.

[The Detective Trio’s Pinecone Mystery]

[Huohuohuohuohuohuohuohuo: Why do we have to chat privately? And what’s with this ’detective squad’ stuff?]

[Lan Zhuo: Hoder, your username is... very abstract.]

[Huohuohuohuohuohuohuohuo: You wouldn’t get it. This is what you call coming with your own BGM.]

Liang He, who had been about to type, saw Hoder’s reply and silently muttered it to herself. She finally understood what he meant by "coming with your own BGM."

Yeah, even she couldn’t help but sing along in her head.

[Liangliang Yue Se Chenghe: I’m afraid the fluffy guys might be eavesdropping.]

[Liangliang Yue Se Chenghe: Haven’t you guys ever read a detective novel?]

[Huohuohuohuohuohuohuohuo: Eavesdropping? Is that even possible? Can they understand us?]

[Lan Zhuo: Detective novels? Are they any good?]

Faced with their barrage of questions, Liang He sighed in exhaustion. After patiently explaining herself, she finally dragged the topic back on track.

[Liangliang Yue Se Chenghe: Anyway, tonight we’ll secretly tail them and see exactly which animal stole from the little squirrel’s home.]

[Huohuohuohuohuohuohuohuo: Sounds interesting, count me in!]

[Lan Zhuo: ...If both of you are going, then I suppose I will too.]

Lan Zhuo hadn’t wanted to participate in such a childish game, but seeing their eager eyes, he really couldn’t bear to refuse. He figured that out of the three of them, at least one needed to be the voice of reason.

[Liangliang Yue Se Chenghe: Then it’s settled!]

Thus, Lan Zhuo—who considered himself the only level-headed one—was successfully roped into Liang He and Hoder’s scheme.

[Lan Zhuo: But there is one problem. How can you be sure that the beast will go out again tonight?]

Lan Zhuo had hit the nail on the head. Liang He pondered for a moment before suddenly clapping her hands.

"Oh my, I’ve found so many pinecones recently. Why don’t we peel some pine nuts to eat?" she said out loud, shooting a playful glance at the two men, clearly signaling for them to play along.

"Ah? Oh! Right, right, right, I’ve found quite a few myself." Called out to join the act, Hoder didn’t dare ignore her and immediately played along.

Lan Zhuo’s focus, however, was entirely on the pine nuts. "Can humans actually eat pine nuts?"

Lately, following Liang He around had opened the door to a whole new world of culinary delights for him. Even so, he was still rather unfamiliar with foods like pine nuts.

"Of course we can! Pine nuts are a type of nut, and their nutritional value is nothing to scoff at."

Putting her words into action, Liang He knew she had to act extremely satisfied with the gifts in order to confuse the ’thief.’ That was the only way she could successfully bait the trap.

"First, we’ll extract the pine nuts. Then we’ll roast them. Once they’re roasted until they open their mouths, we can easily eat the meat inside."

"Open their mouths?" Lan Zhuo’s brow furrowed tightly, his thoughts seemingly taking a dark turn. "Pine nuts... they aren’t living creatures, are they?"

He wondered why they would open their mouths if they weren’t alive. But if they were alive, wouldn’t it be incredibly cruel to rip them off the pinecone while they were still breathing?

The more he thought about it, the more horrified he became. Lan Zhuo couldn’t help but shudder, an indescribably troubled expression crossing his face.

"PFFT! Doctor Lan, what on earth are you imagining?" Liang He was genuinely amused by him. Wasn’t his associative thinking a bit too wild? "When I say ’open their mouths,’ I mean the hard outer shell of the pine nut will naturally crack open during the roasting process. That makes it easier to take out the nutmeat inside."

Hearing her explanation, Lan Zhuo—who had thoroughly spooked himself—finally breathed a sigh of relief. "I see. I was about to say, I didn’t think any book had ever classified pinecones as animals."

"HAHAHAHA! Bro, I gotta hand it to you!" Compared to Liang He’s restrained giggles, Hoder was completely unabashed in his booming laughter.

"Thanks for the compliment," Lan Zhuo replied with a deadpan expression, pretending Hoder was actually praising him. To be completely honest, he felt like Hoder’s laughter was going to deafen him.

Chatting and joking around, the three of them extracted all the pine nuts from the cones. Liang He took charge of roasting while the men handled the cleanup. By the time they finished tidying up, the pine nuts were hot and fresh out of the pan.

"Wow! I didn’t expect these roasted pine nuts to smell this good!" As an undeniable foodie, Hoder was the first to try one. Seeing that his delighted expression wasn’t faked, Lan Zhuo carefully selected a pine nut, gently peeled it open, and popped it into his mouth.

"It truly does have a uniquely pleasant aroma." Lan Zhuo’s eyes lit up, genuinely pleasantly surprised. "No wonder squirrels love to eat them. It turns out they are the true connoisseurs of nature’s delicacies."

Liang He deeply agreed with his assessment.

"I completely agree. We really have to thank whichever little animal delivered these pinecones to us. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have had the chance to eat such fresh pine nuts."

Even while munching on the snacks, Liang He didn’t forget to dig a pit for their ’thief.’ She was quite the trickster, seemingly entirely unafraid that the fluffy animal would throw a tantrum over having its good intentions manipulated.

"It’s a shame there are so few of them, though. It’s not even enough for the three of us to share. If only there were a few more," Hoder added. He was just as much of a scoundrel, flawlessly coordinating with Liang He to dig the pit even deeper for their fluffy culprit.

Taking in their entire conversation, a certain fluffy animal subtly twitched its ears. It rolled over, feigning nonchalance, completely unaware that it had already fallen right into the two-legged beasts’ trap.

That night, just like usual, Liang He led the animals through their bedtime routine. Once an episode of their cartoon finished playing, the fluffy animals obediently gathered around her and began to fall asleep.

Under the hazy moonlight and in the silence of the night, a pair of eyes suddenly snapped open. They brightly surveyed the surroundings. After confirming that Liang He was sound asleep, a figure stealthily tiptoed out of the animal dormitory.