Children’s detective stories with fairy tale like style. There are 12 books available， including 8 novels （black and white illustrations， full-color illustrations） and 4 collections of short stories （black and white illustrations）.

A super intelligent bear with a high IQ called Black-White Bear （not a panda）， who lost his memory for some unknown reason， was taken in by a raccoon called Daddy Raccoon. Together they cofounded the “Black-White Bear Detective Agency”. While seeking to learn of his real identity， the genius Black-White Bear successfully assists the police in cracking quite a few criminal mysteries. Taking animals and the objects from daily life as the characters， it takes full use of the very characteristics of each animal or the object to set up the storyline， creating a great sense of humor through narrating familiar things from a strange and interesting perspective. The stories unfold fast with plenty of suspense and rigorous reasoning， providing readers aged 0-99 great fun as well as big challenges！ You can also find daily life science in the stories and gain more.

There is also a sub-series with full-color illustrations tailored for young children. In addition to the suspenseful and adventurous detective story， each chapter in the story is followed by an interactive puzzle game for kids to take part in.

Dong Qi is a new fairy tale writer and cartoon screenwriter. She has written more than ten cartoons and published more than 300 short and medium length stories. She is especially good at creating detective novels.

Black-White Bear Detective Agency series

Dong Qi

China Children’s Press amp; Publication Group

August 2021 （updated）

32.00 （CNY） per book （for Middle Grade students）

30.00 （CNY） per book （for Low Grade students）

Boom！ Fizzle…

Mr. Soda’s pull-tab was suddenly pulled open， and air spurted out fiercely.

He stumbled in surprise and staggered around， scaring the killer into taking two steps back and dropping the pull-tab beside him.

The pulled tab was already deformed and could not plug the can. Mr. Soda knew he would soon be dead and had to leave some evidence for the police to find the killer...

It’s a 28-story office building in Hongfu City. No high-rises around， hence a wide-open view was possible from there. The police had cordoned off the whole building. Sergeant Bulldog clenched the paws of Black-White Bear and looked around on high alert， fearing the vanishing of Black-White Bear. Since the last time Sergeant Cattle visited the city， Sergeant Bulldog had been overcome with insecurity. He needed Black-White Bear， knowing clearly that the bear would leave the city sooner or later.

The crime scene was in a room on the 26th floor， where a beverage company was.

Dr. Ape stooped and touched the opening of a canned soda—Mr. Soda—who leant against the wall. “Not breathing，” Dr. Ape sighed.

It’s a document room. There was no window other than a vent high up on the wall， not even a door gap. Officer Ape had found in his investigation that the vent was connected to the outer wall. There used to be an aircon on the wall and the vent was connected to its drain hose.

“The stingy boss Mr. Bat even let his Ape workers take off the aircon to save just that bit of money， hence the vent was there. Otherwise the room would be totally airtight，” said Officer Ape A after an investigation.

Black-White Bear entered the scene and looked around. The room was not large. Against one wall was a big cabinet that had large drawers of varied sizes. The labels told that inside the drawers were company documents. One drawer was half closed， the outside of which wrote “Contact Info. of Regular Clients.”

His gaze landed onto the floor and was nailed to a worn-out phone book—thick and heavy with the contact information of all the company’s clients. The phone book must’ve be taken from the half-closed drawer， given that there’s just the one book missing amongst the neatly-arranged phone books. Next to the phone book on the floor was a key.

Officer Ape’s investigation revealed that the document room door was tightly locked when the crime was committed. And that key was the one for the document room.

“The key， the tightly-locked door， and no window…” Sergeant Bulldog scratched his head. It seemed like another brain-mangling secret room case. He glanced at Black-White Bear and made up his mind.

Black-White Bear noticed that around Mr. Soda was a small puddle of soda water and stains could be seen around it， just like it was splashed.

Before taking the pull-tab off， Mr. Soda probably made some intense moves， hence some soda water gushed out of the bottle，” Dr. Ape analyzed. Black-White Bear cupped his chubby cheek and thought over the possibility of Dr. Ape’s guess.

“Intense moves by Mr. Soda？” Sergeant Bulldog tried to collect his own thoughts. After a long while， he said， “Maybe it was Mr. Soda going through the phone book before he died？”

“The labels were outside the drawers. No need to ransack them one by one， right？” Officer Ape B reminded him. Sergeant Bulldog gave him a mean look. It felt shameful to see his train of thoughts rejected by his subordinate.

It’s the weekend today. The whole building was off work. But Mr. Bat still ordered Sales Director Mr. Wine， Deputy Director Mr. Soda， and Financial Officer Miss Mint to come and work overtime. Hence， when the crime was committed， apart from Mr. Soda only the three were in this building. They were also the first to discover the case.

“I asked the three of them to be punctual for a 1 p.m. meeting. I waited quite a while at the 28th floor and didn’t see Soda. I thought he slacked off and was gonna deduct his pay，” said Mr. Bat. He often deducted staffs’ pay on any possible occasion and all the while being stingy on fringe benefits. The Ape workers called him “bloodsucker” behind his back thanks to his exploitive nature.

“I s-s-saw Mr. Soda didn’t show up. I was worried about his pay getting， and gave him a call…It rang for quite a while and nobody answered. I dialed again and again until we went downstairs and heard the phone ring from the document room. Mr. Wine took out a key to open…” Miss Mint trembled like a leaf. She often wore cool clothes but at this moment she was huddling in a thick cover.

“Mr. Wine has the key？” Black-White Bear turned to Miss Mint.

“Does that mater？ We three found him together，” Mr. Wine’s streak of arrogance came from his superiority complex as a high-end overseas returnee and a frequenter of upper-class social occasions. He habitually turned his nose up at everything around.

“There are only two keys to the document room， one for Mr. Wine and the other for Mr. Soda，” Officer Ape C gave a brief on the investigation. Hearing this， Sergeant Bulldog’s eyes lit up.

“It must be Mr. Wine！” Sergeant Bulldog gritted his teeth and murmured， “Only he had a key， and he was on the 26th floor then！ How convenient！” Sergeant Bulldog gesticulated while he spoke. He went into the document room from the adjacent one， took out the key and opened the door， removed the pull-tab， locked the door， and went back to the 28th floor as smooth as the wind. Sergeant Bulldog kept his eyes on Black-White Bear for any possible response， wearing a look of “I’m sure you’ve got no grounds to refute.”

However， Black-White Bear only stared blankly at his mime， without objection or approval.

GP Ape roughly estimated that the death of Mr. Soda happened between 1 and 1：30 p.m.

“Where were you between 1 and 1：30 p.m.？” Black-White Bear asked Mr. Bat.

“In the meeting room on the 28th floor. I was checking the account book. Miss Mint was in the meeting room too，” Mr. Bat gave her a look and said， “Ask her if you don’t believe what I say！”

It’s a bit strange that Miss Mint was avoiding eye contact. Noticing this， Black-White Bear probed for more details， “Did Mr. Bat stay in the meeting room from 1 to 1：30 p.m.？”

“Actually…” Miss Mint sneaked a look at Mr. Bat and murmured timidly， “he left the meeting room for a little while at around 1：25.”

“That was for checking the account book with Mr. Wine on the 26th floor！” Mr. Bat started nagging， “Ape workers will not receive overtime pay if they don’t finish assignments during work hours. Mr. Wine is too soft and cost me a lot of money！”

“Mr. Wine was on the 26th floor then？” Sergeant Bulldog seemed to catch the point.

“Yes. I was crashing the schedule for a planning chart in my office，” Mr. Wine was a bit impatient， “I’m just having a really bad day. A stone fell from above when I just came downstairs. It almost broke my body bottle. High-rise littering is more than rude！”

Sergeant Bulldog had no time to blurt out before Black-White Bear asked the jittering Miss Mint， “What about you？ Were you on the 28th floor about the time the crime was committed？”

“Hmph！ She was on the 28th floor meeting room at 1：02 and 21 seconds！ I remember clearly， two minutes and 21 seconds late. One day’s pay deducted！” Mr. Bat gloated and chimed in， “Go and check the elevator surveillance， she was definitely late！”

Officer Ape retrieved the elevator and staircase videos. It turned out that Miss Mint came to work at 12：30. She first went to the 26th floor， then up to the 28th floor 28 minutes later， then back to 26th floor in about two minutes. Two minutes later at 1：02 she hurried up to the 28th floor and then did not go back down.

Miss Mint nodded sheepishly， “I did arrive at 12：30. But I forgot to take some documents， so I went downstairs to get them， and ended up taking the wrong ones. That’s why I went back and forth twice.”

“What a scatterbrain！ I oughta dock your pay for a week to help you sober up！” Mr. Bat snatched at the chance. Miss Mint shrank back， feeling utterly helpless.

“At least there are two possibilities. One is that Mr. Soda committed suicide. He endured the pain and pulled the tab himself. After all， this is a secret room.” Sergeant Bulldog lowered his voice to analyze， “The other is that Mr. Wine killed him： Only he had the key， and he was on the 26th floor. But this means it’s not a secret room anymore.” Sergeant Bulldog’s analysis sounded reasonable and justified， not as pie-in-the-sky as before. That credit might go to his recent learning of reasoning after Black-White Bear.

But Black-White Bear obviously saw other suspicions： Is it Mr. Soda who found the phone book on the floor？ And the purpose？ How exactly did those scattered soda stains come about？ The three who found Mr. Soda all had time to commit the crime alone. But who killed him？ Or was it a suicide， as Sergeant Bulldog analyzed？

Black-White Bear’s brain was buzzing with thoughts. To his side， Sergeant Bulldog looked quite different from usual. He tried not to guess Black-White Bear’s train of thoughts， and began to think independently instead.

The surveillance video showed that Mr. Soda was the first one to arrive， and he was on the 26th floor; Mr. Bat was the second， on the 28th; Miss Mint was the third， on the 26th; Mr. Wine arrived only after Miss Mint went back to the 28th floor， and then went to work on the 26th floor. He didn’t go back to the 28th floor until Mr. Bat came to get even with him. Then soon after， Mr. Bat also followed him back to the 28th floor; after a while， the three went down to 26th floor together and found Mr. Soda locked in the document room.

Given the time read from the surveillance footage， the three of them all had time to commit the crime， but who was it？

Sergeant Bulldog had a strong feeling that it was Mr. Wine. As reasoned above， only he had the key. Otherwise， it must be a suicide. But the thing was how could Mr. Soda commit suicide when everything was perfectly all right for him？

“Feathered his own nest？” Mr. Bat’s heart jolted. If the scene were not cordoned off， he really wanted to search Mr. Soda’s body. “Recently， my thoughts were on the huge business costs. That’s why I told the three to come for a meeting. Is it that he committed suicide out of fear？”

“He was looking for the contact information of regular clients in the document room. What was it for？” Mr. Wine pondered on the questionable points， “Was it for job-hopping？”

“Did he misrepresent the number of products for me？” Miss Mint shivered. Her neck recoiled back into her collar， with a fearful look telling “the boss is gonna deduct my pay again.”

It’s all so confusing. What happened in the locked document room at the time of the crime？ Sergeant Bulldog scratched his head in anxiety， with hair strands falling out along.

Back to the scene. That thick and heavy telephone book on the floor drew the attention of Black-White Bear. It’s the Digital Age now， he remembered. There’s a backup of client phone numbers in the Sales Department computer， so why did Mr. Soda to look for the old phone book？ Was he searching for some phone numbers？ Or was it for other purposes？

The phone book mystery was not tackled yet. Black-White Bear shifted his gaze sideways. Officer Ape drew white lines to separate out that small patch of soda water and the surrounding soda stains. Black-White Bear noticed that there were no soda stains in a chunk. That clear chunk must have been covered by something when soda water was splashed， hence the soda stains were incomplete. Black-White Bear turned to another thought， “perhaps， that’s not a piece of something ......”

Sergeant Bulldog was also investigating actively. He stared at the vent in the wall. According to Officer Ape， no climbable thing could be found on the outer wall where the vent led to， nor any obstacle above or below.

Except for this building， all the surrounding ones were no more than eight stories， with some distance away， making it difficult to reach the vent on the 26th floor.

“The Bat took off the aircon two days before the crime…Even if he were the murderer， the only vent leading to the outside could play no role in it…” Sergeant Bulldog was a bit anxious and barked towards the vent， which drew Black-White Bear’s attention.

A vent to which the outer wall had no obstacles， a thick and heavy phone book， soda stains that were missing a chunk， the weird behavior of the suspect… All of a sudden， Black-White Bear connected every single clue available.

Everybody was called back to the document room. Mr. Wine looked very impatient. He had a cocktail party tonight. He kept looking at his watch and urged， “Can I go First？ The door was not opened by me. It must be a suicide.”

“Wrong. Mr. Soda was murdered！” Black-White Bear’s tone was heavy.

“I knew it！” Sergeant Bulldog punched the air， looking like enjoying a full triumph. He lowered his voice and asked Black-White Bear， “It’s Mr. Wine， right？ Only he had the key！”

“No. It’s nothing to do with Mr. Wine’s key.” Black-White Bear’s words sparked a shocked expression across everybody’s face， who were all wondering about the impossibility of a the murderer using a spell that could allow one to pass through walls.

Black-White Bear whispered something in Officer Ape’s ear and then the latter nodded and went out.