Animal Detective

Because of this, Wang Feng had insisted on coming along with the three of them.

After leaving the station, they headed north on National Highway 320, a winding, twisting road.

A little over an hour later, they rounded a mountain ridge, and the Shu Kang Checkpoint appeared a short distance ahead.

This national highway was the most vital route leading to the country's interior.

This location was about a hundred kilometers from the border. Beyond it lay the junction of four countries—a chaotic, triangular region.

For anyone trying to transport drugs to the interior by road, this was an unavoidable choke point.

Thus, its reputation as the first line of defense in Dian Nan was well-deserved.

Traffic was backed up ahead, with a long line of trucks crawling forward as they waited to be inspected.

The road was narrow, so there was no way to overtake them.

Shen Xin wasn't in a hurry and simply followed the flow of traffic.

The traffic was only crawling, but it was still relatively fast. In about ten minutes, they reached the front of the checkpoint.

There was only a single lane, and every vehicle had to stop for inspection.

They would check IDs and ask drivers about their destination.

It was two in the afternoon, and the checkpoint's second shift was on duty.

Several police officers were working at the scene.

Some directed the flow of traffic, while others were responsible for the actual inspections.

A car pulled to a stop.

One officer stepped forward to check the driver's documents, while on the opposite side of the car, Officer Tan Xin led Celestial Skill in a circle around the vehicle.

After one lap, Tan Xin looked down at Celestial Skill.

Celestial Skill shook her head.

Tan Xin gave a slight nod to the team member checking the IDs, signaling the all-clear.

As long as the documents were in order, the car could be let through.

However, as the car drove off and the next one pulled up, Celestial Skill suddenly froze and whipped her head around to look south.

"What is it, Celestial Skill?" Tan Xin asked, startled.

The next moment, Celestial Skill shot forward.

The force was so great that it made Tan Xin stumble, and the leash was yanked from his hand.

Once free, Celestial Skill sprinted along the line of cars.

Tan Xin was terrified and scrambled to chase after her.

The station chief had given explicit orders that nothing was to happen to Celestial Skill.

Absolutely nothing!

"Lao Yang!" Tan Xin shouted.

His colleague directing traffic also saw Celestial Skill bolting toward him and hurried forward to try and stop her.

He was worried she might get scraped or hit in the heavy traffic.

Celestial Skill kept running, deftly dodging past Lao Yang.

She then ran another twenty-odd meters before stopping at the front passenger door of a sedan, barking urgently.

This reaction made Lao Yang and Tan Xin's faces drain of color as they caught up. They instinctively drew their guns and aimed them at the car, yelling "Don't move!" as they saw the passenger door open.

This had happened before—Celestial Skill detecting something amiss and rushing ahead to give a warning before a vehicle even reached the inspection point.

Unexpectedly, the moment the door opened a crack, Celestial Skill eagerly squeezed through, leaped onto the passenger's lap, and started licking him excitedly.

The scene left Tan Xin and his partner dumbfounded.

Inside the car.

"Alright, alright, I know. You missed me. I missed you, too," Shen Xin said, holding Celestial Skill as he heard the flood of her thoughts.

'I missed you!'

Celestial Skill kept barking at Shen Xin, her eyes fixed on him.

'He's confirmed it. After three months, her eyes are still only for me.'

'Even from so far away, she actually picked up my scent and remembered it so clearly.'

"Don't get excited, we're police officers, too," Shen Xin quickly shouted to the officers outside when he saw they had drawn their guns.

To maintain a low profile when they came to Dehong, they hadn't taken a police car, instead driving a private vehicle.

Tan Xin remained cautious and slowly approached.

Wang Feng got out of his car, which was two vehicles back, and walked over.

Only when he appeared did Tan Xin and his partner relax.

"Then you are?"

Tan Xin looked at Shen Xin with a wary, and even somewhat jealous, gaze.

Over the past three months, Celestial Skill had become the darling of the checkpoint.

But Tan Xin had never seen her treat anyone with such enthusiasm.

Not even Pan Chenghai, the man who brought her back.

He couldn't help but feel a little... jealous.

When Wang Feng saw this, he was certain that Shen Xin was the one who had trained Celestial Skill.

How else could they be this close?

Shen Xin got out of the car, still holding Celestial Skill, and said, "My name is Shen Xin. I'm looking for your Team Leader Pan."

"You're Shen Xin!"

Tan Xin and Lao Yang exclaimed in unison.

The next moment, Lao Yang hurried forward, saying excitedly, "My apologies, this is a real misunderstanding. You should have given us a heads-up that you were coming. We would have come to meet you."

He quickly shook Shen Xin's hand, apologizing profusely.

They had just pulled a gun on him.

Shen Xin glanced at Celestial Skill, who was circling his feet. "I was hoping to surprise you all, but I didn't expect to be discovered anyway. Not bad, her professional skills haven't declined."

Celestial Skill barked once, her head tilted up, her gaze never leaving Shen Xin.

Soon, Pan Chenghai and the checkpoint's leadership arrived, having heard the news.

Pan Chenghai jogged over from a distance and threw his arms around Shen Xin, overcome with emotion. He grumbled about why Shen Xin hadn't told him he was coming so he could have picked him up.

"I'm on a mission, but I figured I was close by, so I made a special trip to see Celestial Skill," Shen Xin explained.

Hearing he was on a mission, Pan Chenghai stopped asking questions. He looked at Celestial Skill and said with a hint of guilt, "Shen Xin, you have to forgive me if I haven't taken good care of her."

Shen Xin quickly replied, "What are you talking about? She's even put on weight."

With the V.I.P. treatment she was getting, there was no way she wasn't being well cared for.

Since they were still on duty here, Station Chief Dong Jiamu waved for the group to head to the nearby office area.

Watching Celestial Skill trail after Shen Xin, he couldn't help but sigh. "It really is different, isn't it? Old Pan, are you jealous?"

He had seen firsthand the meticulous care Pan Chenghai gave Celestial Skill.

But the way Celestial Skill treated Pan Chenghai and Shen Xin were on completely different levels.

"It's not the same," Pan Chenghai said with a smile.

Shen Xin had single-handedly rescued Celestial Skill from a terrible situation and personally trained her to be a police dog. How could their bond be the same?

Seeing Celestial Skill following them, Shen Xin asked if it would be a problem.

She was on duty, after all. This was basically deserting her post.

Dong Jiamu said it was fine and told Tan Xin and the others to bring out the other police dog.

The checkpoint had two police dogs on staff.

This one was a Labrador named Battle Tiger.

The name was quite imposing, but being a Labrador, he was famously gentle by nature.

Moreover, as soon as he was brought over, he proactively sidled up to Celestial Skill and whined softly at her.

His posture felt a bit like...

"Team Leader Pan," Shen Xin began.

Pan Chenghai quickly waved his hand. "What's with the 'Team Leader'? Just call me Old Pan."

Shen Xin smiled. "Old Pan, don't tell me Battle Tiger and Celestial Skill are in a relationship."

Their reactions seemed off.

Pan Chenghai shook his head. "No. Battle Tiger has ideas, but the crucial thing is Celestial Skill doesn't pay him much attention."

Shen Xin understood.

That explained why Battle Tiger was constantly trying to get close, while Celestial Skill wouldn't even give him the time of day.

"Battle Tiger."

Shen Xin beckoned to him.

He wasn't sure if it was because the dog was naturally docile and friendly, or if his skill had activated again.

Battle Tiger immediately trotted over and sat obediently in front of Shen Xin, letting out a bark as a greeting.

"Good boy."

Shen Xin ruffled the dog's head. Battle Tiger wore a look of pure enjoyment, and the next moment, an icon appeared above his head.

'He's a friendly one.'

After telling him to get back to work, Shen Xin followed the others to the office area.

It was in a large courtyard right next to the checkpoint, at the foot of the mountain.

As soon as they entered, five small figures bounded over to greet them.

When Pan Chenghai had taken Celestial Skill, he had taken the whole litter.

The five little ones were now nearly four months old and had grown quite a bit. There was one white pup, three black ones, and one that looked like it had "run out of ink."

Pan Chenghai explained that they were now being raised in the courtyard.

Each one was well-fed, sturdy, and incredibly lively.

And like all parents everywhere, watching her five children romping around her, Celestial Skill wore an expression that said life had lost all meaning.

'Annoying.'

'Can't you just disappear?'

Her thoughts revealed her true feelings.

Then she turned and barked at Shen Xin twice.

'Take me with you.'

'Don't take them.'

The one with "not enough ink" was rolling around on the ground, pestering her, which annoyed Celestial Skill so much she turned as if to bite it.

"Alright!"

Shen Xin patted Celestial Skill's head, thinking, 'I'll take you back, train you to be a police dog, and then send you back here later.'

It was clear that Celestial Skill had become the treasure of the entire checkpoint.

Just like Tian Kui before her, she now had her own private room.

They had even set up a special kennel for her at the checkpoint, so she could rest when she was tired from work.

As for Celestial Skill's work performance, Dong Jiamu and the others couldn't stop singing her praises.

"I'm not saying Battle Tiger is bad."

Dong Jiamu lowered his voice and said, "But compared to Celestial Skill, he's really far behind."

"Just take last month for example. The drugs were hidden inside peanuts, and Celestial Skill still managed to find them."

Speaking of Celestial Skill's achievements, Dong Jiamu's face lit up with excitement.

Shen Xin couldn't help but ask how drugs were hidden in peanuts, and if he meant the kind of peanuts people eat.

Pan Chenghai nodded, confirming that yes, it was the edible kind.

"They seal the drugs, stuff them inside an intact peanut shell, and then carefully glue the shell back together."

"Think about it. A single peanut isn't small, so how many grams of drugs can one hold?"

"Then they just put them in a regular food package. A single peanut isn't much, but a whole bag? That's a lot."

"And to throw us off, they hid them in plain sight. They just brazenly put the bag on the car's dashboard, even left it open, making it look like a snack they'd bought."

"The driver's record was clean, too. If you weren't careful, you could've really let them slip through."

"But as soon as Celestial Skill got in the car and took a sniff, she found it immediately. I tried it with Battle Tiger later, and he couldn't smell a thing."

"So, in the three months Celestial Skill has been here, she's helped seize over three hundred kilograms of various drugs. She's simply divine."

Shen Xin was secretly amazed. Drug traffickers really racked their brains to smuggle their goods.

This was the frontline of the war on drugs, and there were some things Shen Xin was truly unaware of, so he asked more questions out of curiosity.

The more he understood, the more it would help him when he carried out missions in the future.

Pan Chenghai told him everything he knew.

Having worked here for over a decade, he had accumulated a wealth of experience and had seen countless smuggling methods.

Cosmetics and canned goods were just the basics.

There was also stuffing them in fruit or hiding them inside jade and gemstones. Just like the peanuts, he had even seen them hidden in chili peppers.

As for inside cars, the gas tank, the chassis—they could be hidden in any nook and cranny.

And of course, there were always body packers.

"That's truly impossible to guard against. For example, hiding it in the body must be very difficult to detect," Shen Xin said.

When hidden inside the body, human scent provides a shield. A police dog could detect an abnormality mainly due to residue left on the outside of the body during swallowing.

Pan Chenghai nodded in agreement, then added, "But in those cases, we can usually spot them."

These people are nervous, and it's hard for them to escape the eyes of an experienced anti-drug officer.

Most importantly, Pan Chenghai and his team often received tips in advance.

This was a major transportation artery with enormous traffic flow.

In principle, every vehicle must be inspected. But if something's hidden in the gas tank, you'd have to dismantle the car to find it. If one car took an hour to search, the traffic jam would stretch all the way back across the border.

So, in normal operations, if a vehicle was being searched with extreme thoroughness, it was usually because they had received a credible tip beforehand.

For instance, they would get intel that a certain truck would be transporting a specific cargo containing drugs, and then they would conduct a targeted search.

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