Animal Detective

Pan Chenghai urged them to eat more.

Then he said, "Captain Wang said he didn't recognize them. Don't worry about it. We get followed a lot around here."

He had secretly taken a photo and asked Wang Feng.

You don't need a computer to check for a criminal record or past arrests—just ask Wang Feng.

Shen Xin sighed silently.

Pan Chenghai and Wang Feng had said the general situation had improved significantly, but things like this still happened.

'Back in the interior, tailing the police... that's just unimaginable.'

Ding Yuwei thought for a moment. "Why don't we go to the local police station and run their IDs? It's better to be safe."

Pan Chenghai shook his head and smiled. "It's fine. Even if you investigate them, you won't get anything. It's better to just let them follow. If they're up to something, they'll reveal themselves sooner or later."

Shen Xin nodded in agreement. 'Fishing, as they call it.'

The risk was manageable.

'It's not that I'm looking down on them, but they're just a couple of skinny runts. A strong gust of wind could blow them away.'

The four of them went back to their meal.

After dinner, Pan Chenghai went to the adjacent parking lot to get the car, while Shen Xin and the other two waited by the roadside.

They had been out all day and wanted to rest up. They were planning to go to Mengmao tomorrow.

As they were chatting idly, Jiang Wengang's expression suddenly changed. He lunged forward, pointing behind Shen Xin and shouting, "What do you think you're doing?!"

Shen Xin whipped his head around.

He saw two guys on a gaudy electric motorcycle approaching, and they'd even thought to put on masks.

But from their clothes and general appearance, he could tell at a glance it was the same two punks who had been tailing them.

Shen Xin's eyes narrowed. He noticed the one with the bowl cut sitting on the back was gripping an expandable baton.

Jiang Wengang was a battle-hardened veteran himself—a full-fledged squad captain of a branch bureau.

In Tingyang, he was basically the stuff of legends—a living King of Hell.

His bellow was powerful and resonant.

The driver, Huang Mao, flinched. Realizing they'd been spotted, he swerved recklessly, charging off the sidewalk in an attempt to escape.

But there was a curb, and he was carrying a passenger. With a loud SCRAPE, the bottom of the bike threw sparks. It wobbled violently, nearly tipping over.

Now that Jiang Wengang had spotted them, he immediately charged forward to intercept.

Shen Xin rushed forward at the same time.

The two punks were clearly amateurs. Once they were caught, they panicked completely.

Huang Mao weaved erratically, trying to get around Jiang Wengang.

He managed to dodge, but he leaned too hard into the turn. The electric motorcycle spun out of control, and they both went flying, bike and all, into a roadside planter.

Shen Xin strode forward and instantly pinned down the guy with the bowl cut.

"It hurts!"

There was barely any muscle on his arm. The moment Shen Xin twisted it back, the man shrieked.

Jiang Wengang quickly moved in and dragged Huang Mao out from under the electric motorcycle.

Ding Yuwei came forward, holding Celestial Skill by the leash.

Celestial Skill was yelping anxiously, trying to rush forward and help.

By the time the two were hauled out of the planter, Pan Wenhai had already driven the car over. He screeched to a halt at the curb and ran toward them.

Seeing the expandable baton that had fallen on the ground, Pan Chenghai's gaze turned sharp.

He grabbed the bowl-cut guy by the collar and demanded to know what he was trying to do.

He was a veteran of the border patrol.

He had fought drug traffickers in primeval forests and survived countless real combat situations—the kind of man who has taken lives.

He was a man of few words, always smiling warmly, but beneath his clothes, a tapestry of scars proved he was a veritable war god, forged in battle.

At that moment, his eyes looked like they could devour a man whole, radiating genuine killing intent.

The bowl-cut guy's face went white with fear. He shook his head frantically, stammering that he wasn't trying to do anything.

Jiang Wengang held Huang Mao by the scruff of his neck.

The kid was wearing tight, ankle-length jeans, and his legs, as skinny as an ostrich's, were now trembling like noodles as he threatened to collapse onto the ground.

"Spit it out. What were you trying to do?"

Jiang Wengang hooked an arm around his neck, his voice low and dangerous.

'They had an expandable baton and charged at us on an electric motorcycle. It's obvious they were planning to attack the three of us from behind.'

The crucial question was their motive.

The three of them had only arrived in Simao yesterday, and they were already being targeted for a vicious attack.

A frontal assault is easy to dodge, but a stab in the back is not. His job was to protect Shen Xin.

Any potential threat had to be nipped in the bud.

Pan Chenghai's gaze remained ferocious. His hand, gripping the bowl-cut guy's shoulder like an iron vise that could shatter bone, tightened as he said coldly, "Not talking, huh? Fine. We'll find somewhere else for you to talk."

He pulled out his phone and called Wang Feng.

Before long, Wang Feng arrived in person with his men.

He took one look at the scene, his expression turning grave. Without wasting any words, he had the men taken away.

「Simao City Bureau.」

Wang Feng quickly ascertained the situation.

"A guy called Brother Xin gave them a thousand yuan to follow you and find an opportunity to beat Celestial Skill to death," Wang Feng explained.

"What!"

Pan Chenghai exploded.

He treasured Celestial Skill. When he'd left Nanjiang, he hadn't said anything, but in his heart, Pan Chenghai had made a vow: he would protect Celestial Skill even if it cost him his life.

It wasn't just because a dog like Celestial Skill was rare, but because she was a police dog—his comrade-in-arms.

'They might as well have attacked me directly.'

"Who is this Brother Xin?" Pan Chenghai asked in a low voice.

Wang Feng shook his head. "They don't know. He's some guy they knew from the streets. They said they'd only met him a few times, had one meal with him as part of a group."

"Then today, for some reason, he suddenly contacted them. They don't know how he got their number."

"He didn't tell them they'd be attacking police, just that you had a grudge with him. He wanted them to kill your dog to teach you a lesson."

"Brother Xin had them meet at the Rare Garden. When they met, he gave them five hundred yuan up front, along with two entry tickets and the expandable baton, then told them to follow you and wait for a chance to make their move."

"They don't know Brother Xin's real name, and the phone he called from is already switched off."

"I've already sent people to check the surveillance footage around the Rare Garden."

The situation wasn't very complicated.

But it was malicious in nature.

Shen Xin had been puzzled. The three of them had just arrived in Dehong; who would want to attack them?

Now he knew—the target was Celestial Skill all along.

Jiang Wengang immediately said, "Old Pan, can you recall ever arresting a drug trafficker with 'Xin' in his name? This is obviously aimed at you, probably as a warning."

Pan Chenghai thought for a moment. "There was one, but he's already been executed."

'If he wants revenge, he'll have to send a message from the grave.'

Shen Xin said, "The key thing is, this so-called Brother Xin was clearly following us. He knew our itinerary."

The fact that he sent those two punks directly to the Rare Garden means he was watching all of them from the very beginning.

Wang Feng nodded; he'd been thinking the same thing. He asked Pan Chenghai if he had noticed anyone suspicious that morning.

A seasoned veteran like him should have been able to spot a tail.

Pan Chenghai thought back for a moment, then shook his head slightly.

"Aside from those two idiots, I didn't notice anyone else."

Shen Xin also reviewed their morning itinerary. They had gone to Charming Street and the Tree-Enveloped Tower.

Both were popular tourist spots crowded with people, so no one stood out.

It was also possible they were too busy enjoying the sights to notice.

They only noticed the two punks at the Rare Garden that afternoon because their tracking skills were so laughably bad.

Wang Feng said, "Alright, you all go back and get some rest. I'll handle the investigation."

It was a case on his turf, so naturally, it was his responsibility.

Still, something like this had happened.

They were targeting Celestial Skill now; next, it could be one of the people.

So Wang Feng also arranged for men to stand guard outside Pan Wenhai's courtyard.

On the way back, Pan Chenghai hesitated before suggesting to Shen Xin that maybe they should stay in a hotel.

"It's fine. I've got all these birds with me; a hotel would be inconvenient," Shen Xin said with a smile, declining the offer. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

「The night passed peacefully.」

The next morning, when Shen Xin got up, Pan Chenghai had already prepared breakfast.

Shen Xin asked for an update on the investigation.

Pan Chenghai said, "They've checked the surveillance and run some checks. The person has been identified. His name is Sun Xin. Captain Wang has already sent people to find him."

That was fast. Wang Feng and his team must have worked through the night.

Their original plan had been to go to Mengmao today.

But after what had happened, they couldn't go. As the saying goes, a wise man doesn't stand beneath a crumbling wall.

If they were going to go at all, it would have to be after this situation was resolved.

Pan Chenghai apologized, looking embarrassed.

He felt bad that Shen Xin's trip was being ruined because of him.

Shen Xin quickly replied, "Old Pan, please don't say that. We're not here on vacation."

As he spoke, he took the ball Celestial Skill had just fetched, rubbing her head. "They've got some nerve, daring to attack our Celestial Skill."

Celestial Skill let out a bark.

[You said it!]

Shen Xin threw the ball again. Watching Celestial Skill chase after it with wild abandon, a thought suddenly struck him, and he figured something out.

Shen Xin had felt something was off yesterday.

The mastermind had hired two amateurs with clean records, an obvious move to conceal his own identity.

To be honest, that level of foresight already put him a cut above half the criminals out there.

And if the motive was revenge against Pan Wenhai, the culprit had to be a drug trafficker.

But drug traffickers have a few distinct traits.

They're cautious.

Normally, they just want to get rich quietly and avoid any contact with the police.

Retaliating against the police is almost unheard of.

They only attack police when they've been caught and are desperately resisting arrest.

Another thing—these guys aren't idiots. The stupid ones get caught early on.

So they would definitely know that attacking a police dog is tantamount to assaulting an officer.

Yet they still took the risk. Shen Xin had been thinking about it since yesterday. Was it really just for revenge against Pan Wenhai?

That theory was logical enough.

But at the same time, there was another possibility: the target was Celestial Skill herself.

Celestial Skill had been in Dehong for three months.

In that short time, she had almost matched the checkpoint's total results from the entire previous year.

She'd also helped Wang Feng's team crack cases.

Shen Xin recalled Wang Feng mentioning that just last month, Celestial Skill had helped them crack a major case.

It was all thanks to Celestial Skill's outstanding professional skills.

From the traffickers' perspective, then, getting rid of Celestial Skill would genuinely increase their chances of successfully smuggling drugs.

And the risk was much lower compared to directly retaliating against a police officer.

After hearing Shen Xin's analysis, Pan Chenghai drew in a sharp breath. "You know," he said, surprised, "that's a real possibility."

Thanks to Celestial Skill, the difficulty of smuggling drugs had increased exponentially.

If they couldn't find a better way to smuggle, then they might as well try to get rid of Celestial Skill.

Pan Chenghai added, "But wouldn't that mean these guys have been watching Celestial Skill for a while? We've got constant patrols around the checkpoint, and we haven't seen anyone suspicious."

His words sparked a new thought in Shen Xin's mind.

'Their checkpoint has three on-duty teams working in two shifts, plus another team that patrols the nearby mountains year-round.'

'Under those conditions, just as Pan Chenghai said, it would be extremely difficult to conduct long-term surveillance near the checkpoint.'

'And therefore, no opportunity to attack Celestial Skill.'

'But Celestial Skill had only been brought out the day before yesterday, an unexpected development prompted by my own arrival.'

'So how did the traffickers know so quickly that she was out and about?'

'And how did they formulate a plan and put it into action by yesterday?'

'Did a trafficker see them?'

Shen Xin racked his brain, thinking about all the places they had been since arriving in Simao, searching for any suspicious individuals.

Someone who had paid an unusual amount of attention to Celestial Skill, for instance.

As he thought it over, a face suddenly surfaced in his memory.

Liu Jia'ang.

He had seen the group—and Celestial Skill—when they were eating.

Most importantly, the man was an addict, which meant he had connections to drug traffickers.

'Could the information have been leaked through him?'

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