Animal Detective

Chapter 551: Chapter 454: White Elephant

For Wang Feng, following the lead on the baby elephant served two purposes. First, to find the elephant itself.

A wild elephant, an endangered and protected animal, was no small matter.

Second, Wang Feng found it highly unusual that Cai Xingquan would go to such great lengths to get this baby elephant. Selling an elephant would, at most, fetch him maybe a million yuan.

For an ordinary person, that was a huge sum of money.

But for a major drug lord like Cai Xingquan, it was hardly worth mentioning.

He really had no reason to poach a wild elephant just for the money.

It was especially strange that he had deliberately concealed his reason for poaching the elephant during interrogation.

So, there was definitely something more to this baby elephant.

Not to mention, even Fan Liping, a man who was supposed to have died six years ago, had shown up.

Starting from Gangmeng, Wang Feng had assigned a good number of people to comb through surveillance footage on a large scale, searching for traces of Fan Liping and the truck.

On the second day after the incident, they actually found something.

Southwest of Lianjiang was Mengwan County, under the jurisdiction of Dehong.

Following the trail, the two of them tracked him here.

Initially, Wang Feng and Pan Wenhai had considered that Fan Liping might be trying to smuggle the baby elephant out of the country.

Recalling a past case of live elephant smuggling, he speculated that Fan Liping might go through the border forests or cross the boundary river in an attempt to smuggle the baby elephant out.

But they never expected him to leave so openly.

Mengwan had a port of entry called Zhangfeng Port.

According to the surveillance footage, the truck eventually reached the vicinity of Zhangfeng Port, then legally exited the country and headed for Mianguang.

Zhangfeng Port was under the Immigration Administration, which was Pan Wenhai’s department.

At that moment, in an office at Zhangfeng Port.

With the help of their colleagues at the port, Pan Wenhai and the others had already found the relevant exit records.

"Old Pan, Captain Wang, see for yourselves. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the paperwork," a colleague said, pointing at the records, his expression inevitably flustered.

Wang Feng’s investigation had led him here, and his claim that a wild elephant had been smuggled out was tantamount to saying they had messed up at their jobs.

Wang Feng didn’t reply, quietly reviewing all the documents and procedures.

The process went like this: on February 25th, an animal performance company from Mianguang had applied for an entry permit.

They had been invited by a local arts planning company in Dehong to hold animal parade performances in various locations across Dian Nan during the Water-Splashing Festival.

Among the animals they applied to bring in were two elephants, one large and one small.

The paperwork was complete, with no issues whatsoever.

As per regulations, the large animals entering the country also underwent a 30-day quarantine.

Then, after the performances ended, on May 11th, the performance company applied for departure. The paperwork was again in order, all legal and compliant.

The port had also conducted confirmation checks on all the animals according to the relevant regulations.

Entering the country required a 30-day quarantine, but exiting didn’t take nearly as long.

On May 13th, the process was completed, and they were cleared for departure.

The entire process and all the paperwork were flawless.

"Huh? Why is the baby elephant this color?" Pan Wenhai asked while reviewing the video of the entry inspection.

The two elephants, one large and one small, were held in separate cages.

The large one looked normal, but the baby elephant wasn’t grayish-black. Instead, it was a very light, pale brown.

The colleague from the port nodded. "That’s right, that’s the color. We asked them; they said it was dyed. Old Pan, you should know this. Down south, they treat white elephants like treasure, don’t they?"

Pan Wenhai nodded.

Of course he knew that.

Down south, especially in Siam, so-called white elephants were as precious and rare as pandas are in China. They were auspicious omens, sacred beasts.

These white elephants weren’t actually pure white; they were pale brown or even a faint pink.

It was a form of albinism caused by a genetic mutation.

Being rare made them precious.

Pan Wenhai then watched the video log from their departure.

There were no issues there either. Two elephants, one large and one small, and the smaller one was indeed a different color.

But the external surveillance footage showed that the truck carrying the baby elephant had indeed arrived at Zhangfeng Port.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Wang Feng, who was standing beside him, suddenly exclaimed, quickly pulling out his phone and stepping outside to call his team.

A short while later, he returned, his expression grave. He said in a low voice, "Old Pan, I’ve figured it out."

Pan Wenhai remained silent. He had guessed it too.

Wang Feng continued, "We didn’t press those two for details during their interrogation, and they didn’t volunteer anything. They just kept saying ’elephant, elephant.’"

"I just had someone ask again. That baby elephant was white. Old Pan, they pulled a classic switcheroo."

He said, pointing at the screen.

Pan Wenhai was silent, but their colleague from the port grew frantic. "What do you mean?" he asked hurriedly.

Wang Feng explained, "The one that came in was dyed. The one that went out wasn’t."

"I suspect they intentionally dyed it this color and found a baby elephant of a similar size."

"Look, it’s an elephant, and it’s in a cage. You guys wouldn’t dare get too close for a detailed inspection. And elephants, well, they all look more or less the same. You might not be able to tell the difference even if you looked closely."

"So they used a swap to smuggle the poached elephant out of the country."

Pan Wenhai furrowed his brow and nodded.

And in that moment, he also understood why Cai Xingquan would inexplicably poach an elephant.

And why he went to such great lengths, starting preparations months in advance.

It was because this was an extremely rare, precious albino elephant.

Now that things had come to this, there was no point in trying to assign blame.

After leaving the port, Wang Feng nudged Pan Wenhai. "What are you thinking about?"

Pan Wenhai hesitated for a moment. "Captain Wang, do you think Cai Xingquan got this white elephant as a gift for someone?"

Down south, a white elephant symbolized good fortune.

For powerful, high-ranking figures, it was the best possible gift.

Cai Xingquan might have poached this white elephant just to curry favor with some big shot.

"The question is, how did Li Ping get involved? What the hell is that kid up to now?" Pan Wenhai’s brow furrowed deeply. He couldn’t figure it out.

Wang Feng didn’t have an answer. He waved Pan Wenhai over to the car and said, "Old Pan, don’t overthink it. What they did is actually a good thing for us."

When Pan Wenhai looked at him, he continued, "Think about it. If they had used back channels to smuggle it out secretly, it would be much harder for us to investigate."

"But now? They went through official channels. The performance companies on both sides, the people in charge—those are all leads. If we follow the trail, we’re bound to find something."

"And I think if we keep on this trail, we’re going to make a major discovery."

"You should know, Li Ping has hated drug traffickers his entire life. I don’t know what he’s been through, but since he chose to stay down south, he must have his reasons."

"So he’s definitely still doing the same kind of work."

"He showed up in person to transport the baby elephant out of the country. And it’s a precious white elephant—like you said, probably a gift for some big shot."

"And then there’s Cai Xingquan, who’s clammed up and won’t say a thing. Is he afraid?"

"So if you connect all the dots, shouldn’t we be focusing on this lead?"

Pan Wenhai nodded. Wang Feng’s analysis made a lot of sense, and he agreed with it.

But the more he thought about it, the more his heart ached.

Because that foolish kid, after barely managing to survive, had still chosen to walk the same path.

"Let’s go."

Pan Wenhai said no more and got in the car.

Perhaps feeling the atmosphere was too heavy, Wang Feng deliberately changed the subject, bringing up Shen Xin’s idea.

"If things really go according to Shen Xin’s plan, our lives will get a lot easier. Especially you, you should be moving to a background role by now," Wang Feng said with a smile.

Pan Wenhai glanced at Wang Feng. "You’re one to talk. Same goes for you."

With Wang Feng’s seniority, he could easily take a backseat role too, get transferred to a detachment commander position, and then climb the ranks step by step.

"As for Shen Xin, whether this thing works out or not, I admire him from the bottom of my heart."

Just for daring to think so big, Pan Wenhai was impressed.

Wang Feng nodded in complete agreement, then asked Pan Wenhai to call Shen Xin and update him on the situation.

When the call connected, Shen Xin was racking his brain over where to find 400 suitable police dogs.

Even if they were stray dogs, that was no small number.

Wan Xiaoyang’s idea was just to buy them.

Buy them from all over the country.

Even at twenty thousand yuan per dog, the total cost would be immense, but it would be nothing compared to the ultimate goal. A figure like forty-eight million yuan was hardly worth mentioning.

But the problem was that these purebred dogs they bought might not be suitable.

Shen Xin’s screening criteria had one more crucial rule: he had to inspect each dog himself.

Just as he was pondering this, Pan Wenhai’s call came through.

More bad news.

The baby elephant had been smuggled out of the country.

’And I promised Nan Ji I’d help her get the elephant back. I can’t just leave the country to go find it, can I?’

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!