Animal Detective

With that, he rose to inspect the venue.

Zhao Hongjie followed with a broad smile.

From the crowd, Zhang Hancheng gave Shen Xin a slight, satisfied nod.

Shen Xin breathed a quiet sigh of relief and hurried to catch up.

After the tour came the acceptance ceremony.

Naturally, this involved a few speeches from the leadership.

But the main event today was the demonstration by the police dogs and police birds.

Considering Xu Jinguang’s rank, they cut out all the fluff.

The police dogs performed a standard drug-sniffing exercise, straight from the official training manual.

The police birds, on the other hand, focused on practical applications, with demonstrations prepared for searching and tracking.

This all took place on the base’s large parade ground.

Shen Xin, having changed into his training fatigues, personally led a team of police dogs through various standard drills.

After more than two months of training, there was no question about the dogs’ capabilities.

In fact, the difficulty was even lower than their previous evaluation in Ningshan.

So, naturally, they passed with flying colors.

The applause was thunderous.

Xu Jinguang nodded repeatedly, looking extremely pleased.

He knew that training police dogs, at the end of the day, was a matter of investment.

With enough money, you could train a steady stream of qualified police dogs.

But that was easier said than done.

It always came down to money, after all.

But what he valued most about Shen Xin’s program was his unique method of selecting dogs from the stray population, which drastically reduced the cost of canine training.

That was the truly invaluable part.

Next up were the police birds.

Beyond basic formation drills, their practical demonstration consisted of two parts: searching and tracking.

For the search, an area was designated, and the Ravens were tasked with finding a specific target within it.

The tracking portion showcased their ability to follow a target silently, using the smart helmets.

The ministry had spearheaded the recent mission in Dian Nan, so Shen Xin was sure Xu Jinguang had already seen the case files and reviewed the footage of Yifan and the other birds in a real combat situation.

But watching them now, he was still beaming, nodding and offering praise.

From that standpoint, the inspection was an undeniable success.

When the Ravens returned, their task complete, Shen Xin finally let out a full breath of relief. He gave a sharp salute, signaling the end of the demonstration.

Xu Jinguang rose and led the applause.

Shen Xin kept a smile plastered on his face, feeling the muscles begin to ache from the strain.

’Almost there. The hardest part is over.’

A man of Xu Jinguang’s rank probably wouldn’t stay for long.

And sure enough, after the demonstration concluded, Shen Xin heard from Zhang Hancheng that Xu Jinguang was scheduled to leave that afternoon, right after the lunch reception.

He had other work to attend to in Ningshan.

That had nothing to do with Shen Xin, though. At least he’d get a good meal out of it.

Unexpectedly, after lunch, Xu Jinguang’s secretary found Shen Xin and led him away to meet with the man himself.

Shen Xin didn’t think much of it, assuming Xu Jinguang just wanted to give him a few parting words of encouragement.

But when he entered the room, he was surprised to find Xu Jinguang alone.

It was a private lounge.

Xu Jinguang greeted him with a warm smile and gestured for him to sit.

The secretary served them tea, then closed the door on his way out.

Seeing the change in atmosphere, Shen Xin immediately tensed up.

"Don’t be nervous."

Xu Jinguang waved a hand dismissively, a friendly smile on his face. "Relax," he said. "You’ve done an excellent job with the police dog program. I’m very satisfied. But I called you here alone for another matter entirely."

Shen Xin sat bolt upright, perched on the edge of the sofa cushion. "What matter would that be, sir?" he asked cautiously.

Xu Jinguang didn’t jump right into it. He made some small talk first, mentioning a few of the cases Shen Xin had worked on.

"That Great Avenue Gold case, in particular, was very cleverly handled."

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The fact that Xu Jinguang could name the Great Avenue Gold case off the top of his head was surprising. He continued, "I mentioned that case during a previous inspection tour. To be honest, it was handled beautifully. You have a very unique approach."

Shen Xin nodded, silently trying to figure out where this was going.

’Is this about... a promotion?’

After all, Xu Jinguang had asked him about his ambitions earlier, and he’d said his dream was still just to be a good detective.

When he seemed to have said enough, Xu Jinguang finally got to the point. "Shen Xin, there’s a case that’s been weighing on my mind for many years. I was hoping you could apply your talents to it, see if you can make a breakthrough."

"Especially since there has been a recent development."

As he spoke, he stood up, picked up a tablet from the table, tapped the screen a few times, and handed it to Shen Xin.

Confused, Shen Xin tapped on the video file.

"What’s up, family!"

A loud voice suddenly boomed from the tablet, making Shen Xin jump.

Shen Xin didn’t dare ask any questions. He composed himself and kept watching.

’What kind of case is this?’ he couldn’t help but wonder. ’For someone of Xu Jinguang’s rank to have it on his mind for so long...’

It must be a major case.

But if it was that major, asking for his help seemed a little far-fetched.

As he was thinking, the video recaptured his attention.

It looked like a short video clip.

A young man in his twenties, speaking in a local dialect with the exaggerated tone of a typical vlogger, was shouting things like "What’s up, family!"

’Is this guy a... yam-digging streamer?’ Shen Xin wondered.

After all, ever since short-form video platforms had blown up, all sorts of bizarre content creators had appeared.

If Xu Erleng could become an internet celebrity by trimming donkey hooves, then someone digging for yams didn’t seem so out of place.

This particular vlogger’s content seemed to be about going into the mountains to find and dig up wild yams.

The clip Xu Jinguang was showing him featured this guy heading into the mountains with a hoe, using his experience to find wild yam vines and start digging.

Then Shen Xin noticed that it didn’t seem to be a finished short video, nor did it look like a clip from a live stream.

It looked more like raw footage.

He could hear the young man reciting his lines, then stopping to adjust the camera.

But mostly, it was just digging. A lot of digging, deep into the earth.

"Fast-forward," Xu Jinguang prompted.

Shen Xin grunted in acknowledgment and skipped the video forward.

He was still digging.

It was only then that Shen Xin realized just how deep you had to dig for wild yams. The hole was already two or three meters deep.

The young man would stop from time to time, shouting things like, "Gotta make a turn here!" or "We’re almost at the end!"

Suddenly, as he scraped away at the dirt with a small hoe, he hit something hard. He started digging with his hands while still shouting at the camera.

"Folks, we’ve definitely got a big one down here!"

Suddenly, he let out a strange cry.

"Holy shit, what the hell is this?"

Shen Xin was instantly on alert.

In the video, the young man was crouched down, busily digging at something.

A moment later, he let out a piercing scream and scrambled backward in terror. The camera shook violently before toppling over.

"Oh my God! Honey! Call the police! I fucking dug up a body!"

A chill went down Shen Xin’s spine. He quickly looked up at Xu Jinguang.

Short-form video had only blown up in the last couple of years.

That meant this video had to be recent.

Digging up a body while looking for yams... The guy had some seriously bad luck.

The problem was, this didn’t seem any different from a fisherman reeling in a corpse.

It was likely just another case of murder and concealed burial.

And cases like that, logically speaking, weren’t exactly rare in a country this size.

So why had Xu Jinguang said this was a case that had been on his mind for many years?