Animal Detective

He drove a short distance, then pulled over and stopped. Chen Chao stopped behind him, got out, and walked over.

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

He got right into Shen Xin’s car and immediately spotted Da Mei.

He didn’t seem to be a big fan of cats or dogs, but he still complimented her, saying she was a beautiful cat.

"This is the cat that helped you find Li Jin, right?" Chen Chao asked from the back seat, reaching out to pet Da Mei’s head.

Da Mei was the same as always. She didn’t let anyone but Shen Xin near her and snapped as if to bite him.

Chen Chao quickly pulled his hand back.

Of course, Da Mei hadn’t really meant to bite him. With a cat’s reflexes, Chen Chao wouldn’t have been able to dodge if she’d been serious.

Shen Xin quickly grabbed Da Mei, held her in his arms, and nodded. "That’s right, it’s her. We’re relying on her again to find that dog Wu Jiawang."

’I’d put up ’Lost Dog’ posters for three days with no luck. In the end, it was Da Mei who found it right away.’

"Impressive."

Chen Chao gave a thumbs-up, wiggled his fingers at Da Mei, and then said, "This cat is practically a genius."

Shen Xin had told her to find a dog, and she had found it. If that wasn’t genius, what was?

As he spoke, he urged Shen Xin to look at the footage from the tracker’s camera.

He was intrigued.

It was the first time he had ever experienced this method of investigation.

Shen Xin opened the app on his phone, connected to the tracker, and immediately got a live feed.

The camera was pointing diagonally upward, completely still.

It looked like Lele had lied back down to sleep.

After a few minutes of stillness, Shen Xin suggested, "Why don’t we stop watching for now? We can keep an eye on its location. If the GPS moves, we can watch the feed then. That’ll save some battery."

Just tracking the location wouldn’t use much power.

Chen Chao was just starting to find it tedious anyway.

Staring at a sleeping dog was even more boring than a stakeout.

So he rolled down the window, propped his feet up on the sill, and lay back, saying he was going to catch a quick nap. He’d been up all night working an intentional injury case.

Shen Xin, of course, had no objection. He even wanted to ask Chen Chao what the case was about.

Shen Xin was curious about all criminal cases.

Da Mei started to sleep, too.

Shen Xin wanted to sleep as well, but he was concerned about Lele’s situation and checked the GPS every few minutes.

There was no movement.

’Looks like I fed it too much sausage earlier. It’s probably still digesting.’

It wasn’t until almost one in the afternoon that Chen Chao woke up. There was still no movement from Lele.

"Let’s eat first."

Chen Chao was certainly patient.

While they were eating, he told Shen Xin that if he wanted to be a detective in the future, the first thing he’d need was patience.

"Don’t always expect it to be like on TV, where they catch the suspect in two episodes."

He added that things had gotten a little better in recent years, with surveillance cameras everywhere.

"Back in the day, cracking a case could easily take several months, sometimes even years."

"One time, we were on a cross-regional pursuit. We went to the Three Eastern Provinces and staked out the suspect’s mother’s house. We figured he’d definitely come home to see his mom for the New Year. We ended up waiting in the freezing snow until after the holiday was over. It was beyond miserable."

"And to top it off, we got nothing. The guy never even came back."

Recalling these old stories, Chen Chao couldn’t help but shake his head.

Seeing that Chen Chao was on a roll with his stories, Shen Xin couldn’t resist asking him if someone in his situation had any hope of transferring to the detective division.

"You kid, holding that question in for so long. Not bad." Chen Chao chuckled and gave him a compliment.

He’d heard from Song Liang and Zhang Jian that Shen Xin wanted to be a detective.

After a moment of thought, Chen Chao said, "Normally, you’d have to go through the official process, which is a bit of a hassle."

"Detectives are a specialized branch. Since your major wasn’t criminal investigation, the standard procedure requires an open position on the detective squad, followed by a review and evaluation. You’d honestly have to wait a year or two before it’s even a possibility."

"But..." Chen Chao’s tone shifted. "If you want to speed things up, it’s not impossible."

"Distinguish yourself."

He held up a finger and continued, "In our line of work, we’re not short on people. What matters most is competence. If you can distinguish yourself, achieve something major, then when the chief meets with you and says, ’Young comrade, what do you wish for?’ you can say, ’I want to be a detective.’ And then it’s just a matter of a single word from him."

He shot him a "you-know-what-I-mean" look.

Shen Xin understood, but then said dejectedly, "But I’m at a local police station."

There weren’t many opportunities to distinguish yourself at a local station.

Most of the time, commendations and merits are for things like staying at your post for years and years, making extraordinary contributions in an ordinary position.

That wasn’t the kind of achievement Chen Chao was talking about.

"Oh, come on. Don’t play coy after getting so lucky," Chen Chao said with a laugh. "You haven’t even officially finished your probation and you’ve already earned a Third-Class Merit. You’re already ahead of ninety-nine percent of people. When I was your age, I was still trailing after my master, fetching him water."

Shen Xin gave an embarrassed smile. On second thought, he realized it was true. How many probationary officers could earn a Third-Class Merit before even being officially confirmed, like he had?

Just as they were talking, his phone vibrated.

It was a notification from the app.

In the app, you could set a geofence, and it would send an alert if the tracker moved outside that area.

"Lele is moving," Shen Xin said quickly.

On the phone, the dot representing Lele’s location started to move north, coming along Ruixiang Road right in front of them.

The two of them watched as the location marker got closer and closer.

Then, through the fast-food restaurant’s window, they saw Lele trotting past along the side of the road.

"Let’s follow it."

Chen Chao immediately stood up, got into Shen Xin’s car, and they tailed it.

Lele was a dog, not a person.

Many of the paths it took were not easily accessible to people.

But with the GPS, they weren’t afraid of losing it.

Chen Chao held the phone and even opened the live video feed.

They watched Lele stop at several trash cans, jumping in to rummage through the garbage.

Then it continued east along National Highway 372.

The highway was busy with traffic, making it dangerous for the dog to cross the road.

Along the way, it also encountered other stray dogs.

Lele seemed very timid and actively avoided them.

They followed it slowly like this until it finally stopped beside a small path.

Shen Xin looked to his right.

Beyond the roadside trees, the area was overgrown with wild grass.

This was the patch of wasteland between Jinyang Village and Xianghong Village.

It covered a large area.

The road in front of them was an underpass for National Highway 372 up ahead. It was an unnamed path that usually only truck drivers familiar with the area would use.

The GPS showed that Lele had entered the wasteland from this spot.

"Let’s go."

Chen Chao didn’t hesitate, getting out of the car and following right away.

It was called a wasteland, but there was no such thing as a true wasteland in the city.

Although many of the nearby residents had already been relocated to apartment buildings, they couldn’t stay idle. This patch of wasteland had been turned into vegetable plots by many of the local elderly.

The weeds were dense, and the only walkable paths were a few small trails trampled out by people.

Chen Chao stopped for a moment, pointed southeast, and asked Shen Xin if Xianghong Village was in that direction.

Shen Xin nodded. Xianghong Village was just on the other side of this wasteland.

The GPS showed that Lele was just ahead. It had stopped.

"Come on, let’s go take a look," Chen Chao called out.

People must have lived here in the past; you could still see the ruined walls of old-style houses.

They also saw graves.

This area must have been farmland before. Back when ground burials were practiced, people would naturally be buried on their own land.

Some of the graves were already abandoned and overgrown with weeds.

But others showed signs of recent worship.

After stumbling their way through a large patch of grass, just as they were about to reach the stinking ditch to the south, Chen Chao grabbed Shen Xin and pointed ahead. "There."

Shen Xin saw it too.

On the edge of a small grove of trees, there were two graves.

They were enclosed by a low wall of red brick, with headstones standing inside. A cypress tree was planted on either side, both of which had grown quite tall.

And there, at the base of the enclosure wall, lay a dog. It was none other than Lele.

From the looks of it, the dog had returned to its old haunt.