Animal Detective

Chapter 543: Chapter 446: Rescue

There was no time to find the fire department and borrow a low-noise cutter.

So before he could begin, Shen Xin had to get the mother elephant accustomed to the sound of the angle grinder.

Shen Xin approached.

The mother elephant’s attention was clearly fixed on Shen Xin, its eyes never leaving him.

"Easy now. I’m here to save you with this tool," Shen Xin murmured to the elephant.

Once Pan Wenhai plugged in the power strip, he flicked the switch on the angle grinder.

The noise was immense.

The mother elephant trumpeted and shuffled back uneasily.

"Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. It’s okay," Shen Xin said, looking directly at the elephant and making soothing gestures with his hands.

Strangely, Shen Xin could feel a great deal of goodwill from the mother elephant, but no affinity icon appeared above its head.

But thinking back to Yuexiao’s situation, he figured this was normal.

"See? It’s okay," Shen Xin said, continuing to soothe it with his voice.

It was actually working.

The elephant was no longer restless and let out two soft calls.

’It might have gotten used to the noise, but what about the sparks?’

Shen Xin tested it on an iron pitchfork, sending sparks flying.

At the sight of the sparks, she grew agitated again.

"It’s okay."

Shen Xin soothed it again, even directing some of the sparks onto its body to show it that they just looked scary and couldn’t actually hurt it.

It had the same effect.

Shen Xin didn’t know if the elephant was just incredibly smart, or if it was his own innate talent at work.

Either way, it was working.

Meanwhile, Chen Ruidong and the others watched on, clicking their tongues in amazement.

Wang Feng said, "This guy is incredible. Look, even the elephant is listening to him."

Huang Delin nodded in agreement. "I feel like he has superpowers. It’s like the elephant can understand what he’s saying."

Chen Ruidong stared intently. "That’s a gift. He was born different. How else could he train police birds?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The captain of the SWAT team in charge of the operation whispered, "Director Chen, that bird of his is incredible, way better than a drone. Do you think there’s any chance he could leave one with us?"

He had already heard about the entire tracking process, and it was simply unbelievable.

’I wish,’ Chen Ruidong thought. ’But Shen Xin worked so hard to train them. He treasures them. I can’t bring myself to ask.’

Shen Xin felt the elephant was ready.

He walked forward, angle grinder in hand, and pointed to the iron chain around its neck.

She was a female elephant, so her frame was smaller, but she was still over two meters tall. Standing next to her, it was impossible not to feel a sense of dread.

’Given her earlier display of power, one flick of her trunk and I’d be sent flying.’

"Now, don’t you go messing with me," Shen Xin warned, then raised the angle grinder to cut the part of the chain he could reach.

Instantly, sparks flew everywhere.

The elephant grew agitated and shied away.

Startled, Shen Xin quickly backed away.

Pan Wenhai immediately shouted, "Shen Xin, maybe we should just wait for the rescue center staff to get here and figure something out!"

They just needed a crane, that was all.

Shen Xin collected himself. "Look, she’s not attacking me. It’s fine."

All of the elephant’s reactions stemmed from an instinctual fear of the unknown.

This was a wild elephant and highly aggressive. If anyone else had gotten this close, they would have been swatted by its trunk long ago.

"Hold still."

Shen Xin warned her again and got back to work.

She actually held still, letting the sparks land on her rough skin.

The chain links were as thick as a human thigh, and the iron bars themselves felt five centimeters in diameter. Cutting through it would be no easy task.

The cutting discs wore down quickly and had to be constantly replaced.

Fortunately, the elephant heeded his words and barely moved the entire time. After a full ten-some minutes, Shen Xin finally cut through one section of a link.

He immediately pried it open.

CLANG! The chain slid off.

The elephant paused for a moment before realizing the shackle was gone.

The next moment, she let out a loud trumpet and charged out.

Chen Ruidong and the others jumped in fright, scrambling to get out of the way.

Even the SWAT officers, who had descended like gods from the heavens earlier, now scattered like birds.

There was nothing to be done. The creature was terrifying.

But the elephant wasn’t targeting Chen Ruidong and his men. She trotted out of the warehouse, trumpeting continuously.

It was as if she were calling for her child.

She crashed recklessly into the bonsai garden.

The largest bonsai trees were like paper-mâché in her path. She left a trail of destruction in her wake.

The police officers in the courtyard all scattered in fear.

There was no controlling her now.

She ran all over the courtyard, calling constantly, trying to find her calf.

From her cries alone, you could feel her desperation and grief.

Of course, there was no reply.

So, the mother elephant charged straight for the main gate.

Chen Ruidong’s expression changed. Though they were some distance from town, there were cars on the road at the foot of the mountain.

If she ran onto the highway, it would be a huge problem.

Shen Xin was already running in pursuit.

The elephant rumbled out of the courtyard, catching half of the iron gate.

There was a tremendous CRASH as the heavy iron gate, weighing hundreds of pounds, was sent flying.

After bursting through the gate, she paused briefly, then turned and headed up the mountain.

The mountain forest was her most familiar environment, and she seemed to believe her calf had returned there.

The concrete road up the mountain ended at the courtyard gate. Beyond that was wilderness, with a gentle slope and only a narrow footpath leading uphill.

The elephant trumpeted as she headed up the mountain. In her path, small trees as thick as a rice bowl toppled at the slightest touch.

By the time Shen Xin ran out after her, she had already disappeared behind a grove of banana trees.

In the distance, he could only hear her urgent calls.

Shen Xin followed for a bit to check on her.

She wasn’t climbing the mountain, but running along the ridgeline into the distance.

In any case, there wasn’t much that could stop her, so it wasn’t a major problem.

Wang Feng, who had caught up, said, "Does this count as releasing her back into the wild?"

Chen Ruidong thought for a moment and felt that wasn’t right.

It was one thing to release her, but it had to be done properly.

Wild elephant herds had never appeared in Dehong. If they just let the mother elephant go like this, she might not be able to find her own herd.

Besides, having her run wild probably wasn’t a good idea either.

"I’d better call Lao Tan and ask him."

Chen Ruidong called Tan Qingming.

He was already on his way. When he heard they had cut the elephant’s chain with an angle grinder, Tan Qingming was stunned for a long moment before hastily asking, "Wait, how did you manage that?"

He knew that wild elephants were highly aggressive. That’s why the official advice in Dian Nan had always been that if you see a wild elephant, don’t hesitate—just run as far away as you can.

Tan Qingming could only imagine how furious an elephant that had been poached and then chained up would be.

And you just took a deafening angle grinder and cut the chain?

The elephant didn’t attack you?

Chen Ruidong said, "It’s a long story. The problem now is that the elephant has run off. She’s injured, too. I’m worried there might be trouble."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. ’Of course there will be,’ Tan Qingming thought.

Hudian is quite remote and surrounded by mountains, but it’s gotten busier in recent years.

It has a meadow known as Little Shangri-La, which attracts a fair number of tourists.

Having a wild elephant on the loose is a huge problem.

"The main thing is, we don’t know anything about elephants," Tan Qingming added.

He had never actually been involved in rescuing an Asian elephant.

The experts in Mengle are experienced, but the problem is that’s eight or nine hundred kilometers away. It would take time for them to come and help.

"I’ll head over first. We’ll talk more then," Tan Qingming said before hanging up.

Chen Ruidong was at a loss. He ordered a drone to be deployed to track the elephant’s movements.

The drone found her quickly.

She was moving along the foot of the mountain, heading northeast.

She would occasionally pause, lift her head, and cry out.

Even through the screen, you could feel her distress.

After a moment of thought, Chen Ruidong said, "Alright, Delin, you arrange for some men and contact the Hudian Police Station. Issue a warning to the township."

"Then, keep monitoring her with the drone. We’ll figure out what to do when Director Tan and his team get here."

"Wang Feng, leave some people here to continue the search. Don’t miss a single corner. You head back, take the suspects to Lianjiang, and start the interrogation immediately."

"Try to break Cai Xingquan."

He added with a grim expression.

Cai Xingquan was a dead man walking; there was no possibility he would escape the death penalty.

He had a lot of valuable intelligence. It would be best if they could pry his mouth open.

The mother elephant was an unexpected discovery. The case itself still needed to be handled with urgency.

Wang Feng nodded, called over to Huang Delin, and the two of them hurried off.

"Shen Xin, you’ve been busy for two days. Go home and get some rest. I won’t repeat my thanks, but once this case is wrapped up, I owe you a good meal."

He said with a broad smile.

They had just finished taking inventory here at the bonsai base.

It was no small haul.

The case had been handled so efficiently thanks in large part to Shen Xin and Er Long.

Shen Xin politely demurred, then said he planned to wait a while longer to see what happened when the rescue center staff arrived.

"As you saw, if the elephant gets out of control, I might be able to help," Shen Xin said.

The mother elephant had been starving for over a month and was also injured.

’Since I’m already involved, I can’t just walk away.’

As he spoke, Shen Xin brought up the matter of the baby elephant again.

Given the mother elephant’s state, he estimated that only finding her calf would calm her down.

"Don’t worry, I’ll have my people look for it."

Chen Ruidong nodded and departed quickly.

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