Animal Detective

Chapter 521: Chapter 425: The Fox Borrows the Tiger’s Might

It was certainly shocking, but a leader’s thoughts were hard to fathom.

Shen Xin keenly noticed that after his initial astonishment, Zhao Hongjie’s brow furrowed slightly.

It was subtle, but there was a clear change in his expression.

This wasn’t to say Shen Xin had learned the art of reading people after just over a month in an office at the city bureau.

It was just that he could distinctly sense an undercurrent of displeasure from Zhao Hongjie.

His thoughts raced, and Shen Xin suddenly hit upon a possible reason.

’Maybe Director Zhao thinks it’s too flashy?’

By "flashy," he meant the kind of thing that prioritized style over substance—focusing immense effort on mere window dressing.

Shen Xin had heard things after arriving at the city bureau.

People said Zhao Hongjie was a no-nonsense, pragmatic man who couldn’t tolerate any deceit.

In other words, he was a leader who wanted to achieve real results.

It was understandable.

After all, this was a man who simultaneously held the titles of Director, Deputy Mayor, and Deputy Department Head.

Most importantly, born in ’75, he was only 43 years old this year.

He was in the prime of his life, with plenty of room for career advancement.

He had previously worked at the Ningjiang Province Public Security Department, where he had taken a crucial step up from Head of the Traffic Police General Corps—one of the most important divisions in the system—to become Deputy Department Head.

Then he was transferred to Nanjiang to serve as Director.

This meant that after achieving results in Nanjiang, his goal was to return to the provincial department and take on an even higher position.

Under these circumstances, he certainly wouldn’t appreciate flashiness and superficial displays.

’Making the parrots mimic human speech, offer greetings, and do a roll call... in his eyes, that must look like nothing more than a superficial performance.’

It looked lively, but it was completely useless in practice.

At this thought, Shen Xin quickly composed himself.

’Li Jiahui was right. I should have been more practical.’

And in fact, that was exactly what Zhao Hongjie was thinking.

At first glance, a flock of crows that could talk and line up for a headcount was novel and incredible.

But this wasn’t a circus. Shen Xin was supposed to be training police birds.

They were meant to do actual work.

Making these crows perform like this was like training police dogs, only to buy a pack of expensive, purebred dogs—each one majestic and handsome—just to parade them around for a show.

Zhao Hongjie didn’t like that.

He preferred an ordinary stray that could save lives, assist in solving cases, and become a decorated service dog.

The most important thing was to get the job done pragmatically.

As long as the work was done well, Zhao Hongjie wouldn’t be stingy.

The police dog project was good and useful, so he immediately approved the budget.

They needed smart helmets to enhance the police dogs’ combat effectiveness, so he immediately paid for them.

And he was never stingy with praise for people who could get things done and produce results.

How else did Shen Xin earn his merits and the "Advanced Individual" award?

Last year, he had just finished his internship and was still working at a local station. This year, he was transferred to the city bureau to head a cold case office.

His official rank hadn’t changed, but the jump from a local station to the city bureau was an incredibly fast promotion.

Therefore, seeing Shen Xin engage in this kind of flashy, impractical display left Zhao Hongjie somewhat displeased.

Of course, it was only displeasure.

Shen Xin’s professional abilities were undeniable; Zhao Hongjie had been watching him all along.

He now thought that perhaps Shen Xin was still young. He had been promoted too quickly and earned too many merits, which had affected him. He’d gotten carried away and was starting to enjoy these superficial things.

’He’s only in his twenties. If he gets a taste for this kind of thing now, how will he ever advance in the future?’

Zhao Hongjie felt that if this was all Shen Xin had prepared for today, it would be necessary for him to offer a reminder, to knock some sense into him.

Jade cannot be shaped without carving.

Zhao Hongjie genuinely had high hopes for Shen Xin and wished him a great future.

Meanwhile, Shen Xin quickly moved on to the next phase, inviting Director Zhao and the others into the base’s large conference room.

Then, he began the "mission briefing."

"Director Zhao, we’ve simulated a practical application scenario based on the previous Fan Lei case," Shen Xin explained, standing in the center of the room.

Hearing "practical application scenario," Zhao Hongjie’s interest was piqued.

Shen Xin had Ding Yuwei prepare a PowerPoint presentation, which he displayed on the large screen. "A certain criminal, after committing a crime, has fled to Shitang Mountain to escape justice."

"Our mission is to track the target. It’s divided into two phases. First, the Police Bird Unit will conduct sweeping reconnaissance."

"After locating the target, they will notify the command center, which is me."

Shen Xin pointed to himself.

"I will then issue an order for the police dogs to pursue the target. During the pursuit, the suspect will be constantly moving, requiring the police birds to provide real-time guidance and lead the police dogs."

"To increase the difficulty, we’ve also set up six decoys. They are wearing the same clothes and have similar body types and hairstyles. After the operation begins, they will disperse throughout the Shitang Mountain area."

"This will require the police birds to memorize the suspect’s appearance from a video, then actively distinguish and confirm the real target."

After finishing, Shen Xin glanced nervously at Director Zhao, implicitly asking if the setup was acceptable and if he had any instructions.

Zhao Hongjie conferred briefly with Xu Xinyao, then shook his head.

A smile returned to his face as he said, "Alright, enough with the formalities. Let’s get started."

He wanted to give some instructions, but he had never experienced anything like this. Who could possibly give instructions?

In any case, he personally thought it was already very impressive.

There were decoys, and their clothes and body types were similar.

’A bird has to first memorize a suspect and then pick them out. That already seems incredibly difficult.’

Xu Xinyao interjected, asking if these "suspects" had familiarized themselves with the birds beforehand.

Shen Xin quickly explained that they hadn’t, and that the men were borrowed from several nearby police stations.

"Good." Xu Xinyao nodded, signaling for Shen Xin to begin.

The first phase was identification and memorization.

It took place right there in the conference room.

A video of the suspect was played on the large screen.

"The clothes the suspect is wearing in the video are different from what the decoys are wearing now, so their only point of reference is facial features," Shen Xin added.

He then guided Plane and the others into the room.

Teddy was left out; this wasn’t his task.

Besides, a crow’s eyesight is not much worse than a hunting falcon’s.

For example, the density of cone cells in their retinas is nearly identical, both about six times that of a human.

Both species possess four types of cone cells, allowing them to perceive ultraviolet light.

Their field of vision is also similar, but they use their sight in different scenarios.

Hunting falcons hunt from high altitudes, process images quickly, and have superior dynamic tracking abilities.

Crows, on the other hand, have a limited flight ceiling. Their vision is used more for close-range applications: perceiving colors, finding tools, and recognizing their own kind.

Crows can even recognize traffic lights.

African grey parrots are actually quite similar.

It could only be said that a bird’s vision, much like a police dog’s nose, is naturally far superior to a human’s.

Plane and the other birds stood in a line, watching the screen.

"Have you all memorized it?" Shen Xin asked, pointing to the screen.

Plane, who could talk, replied, "Memorized."

Er Long and the others nodded.

It seemed they had all memorized it.

But if only it were that simple. The thoughts Shen Xin was hearing were a different story.

Dashun: ’What is that thing?’

San Yang: ’What are we eating later?’

’Who is this?’

’What am I supposed to do?’

Yifan and Er Long were the two ravens.

San Yang was the rook. His call was loud and coarse, and after spending time with him, Shen Xin found him to be a dim-witted glutton.

The type who was a bit slow on the uptake and couldn’t focus.

Dashun was the magpie, and he was very independent.

He was always having little flashes of cunning.

Magpies in the wild actually have this personality; their reputation as the "hooligans of the bird world" wasn’t for nothing.

"Let’s go, let’s go."

Plane squawked, calling for the other birds to set out.

They had done this kind of search training before and were used to it.

Shen Xin decisively stopped Dashun and San Yang.

"Did you two even memorize it? And you’re leaving?" Shen Xin glared at them, grabbing one with each hand and dragging them back to keep watching.

The onlookers watched with curiosity.

Zhao Hongjie, in particular, really wanted to ask how Shen Xin knew those two birds hadn’t memorized it.

All crows look the same. If it weren’t for the differences in their sizes, he wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.

San Yang: ’Annoying.’

Dashun, however, tilted his head and stared at Shen Xin, looking like he wanted to pick a fight.

That’s just how magpies are. If they don’t like the look of someone, they’ll just go at them.

Shen Xin stared him down, and only then did the magpie avert his gaze and start looking at the screen.

’So annoying.’

He was getting impatient.

After confirming through their thoughts one more time, Shen Xin finally let the two of them go.

’It’ll be better once I reach the third stage. Then I’ll be able to see what they’re thinking.’

Presently, with Plane in the lead, the seven birds hopped their way outside.

Once outside, Shen Xin had to remind them that the target was out on Shitang Mountain.

The seven birds flapped their wings and quickly disappeared over the horizon.

Shen Xin was running the operation by himself and was incredibly busy. He rushed back into the conference room to have Tian Kui lead Tian Ying and the others in their own identification task.

Meanwhile, he hurriedly opened his laptop and projected its screen onto the large monitor.

A topographic map of Shitang Mountain appeared on the screen.

Their smart helmets were already on, displayed as red dots on the map, indicating their positions.

At first, they were flying over the mountain right next to the base.

"Dashun, come back! Head south."

Of the seven birds, Dashun was the first to break away from the group, heading straight north.

Shen Xin had software that allowed him to select which bird to talk to and issue commands at any time.

Each bird’s miniature camera was also on. As they skimmed over the land, the picture was reasonably clear.

You could see Dashun flying north toward the urban area.

The helmets had communication functions, with both a speaker and a microphone.

They were all police-issue micro-devices.

The software also had an algorithmic noise-cancellation feature.

A bird’s ears are located roughly behind its eyes, covered by the helmet, so there was no doubt Dashun had heard Shen Xin’s call.

Switching to the microphone feed, Shen Xin heard him squawk a couple of times, but he didn’t turn back.

’Insubordinate!’

From this far away, Shen Xin couldn’t hear its thoughts.

But this was exactly the kind of thing Dashun would do.

"Dashun, I’m going to count to three. If you don’t turn around, you’re going to be in for it," Shen Xin threatened into the microphone.

After making the threat, he couldn’t help but feel a wave of embarrassment and secretly peeked at the reactions of Director Zhao and the others out of the corner of his eye.

If this were a real drill, it would be considered an incident.

On the video feed, Dashun squawked a few times, and a "no" could be heard quite clearly.

Shen Xin nearly crushed the microphone.

’The training period was too short. I was mainly busy with cases and got distracted.’

Zhao Hongjie and the others, however, didn’t show much of a reaction. They watched with great interest, wanting to see how Shen Xin would handle this unexpected situation.

It was a drill, after all. If everything went perfectly smoothly, he would actually find it boring.

He felt that this scenario was exactly the kind of thing that would happen in a real-world application.

Even a person might disobey orders sometimes, let alone a bird!

Seeing that threats were useless, Shen Xin pulled out his trump card.

Grabbing the microphone, Shen Xin commanded, "Teddy, go deal with Dashun for me."

During regular training, Teddy played the same role that Tian Kui had during the police dog training.

Shen Xin managed Tian Kui, and Tian Kui managed the rest of the strays.

At that moment, Teddy was just outside.

At the command, he instantly kicked off the ground and shot straight up into the sky.

Zhao Hongjie was still wondering how Shen Xin would handle it, perhaps by recalling Dashun.

Who would have thought Shen Xin would do this?

This was a classic case of borrowing the tiger’s might.

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